


Expectations:  Neither Friend, Nor Foe

by aquariuslover



Series: Expectations! [7]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Star Trek, Super Junior
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cho Kyuhyun & Shim Changmin Friendship, Enter Another Joong, Evil Plans, Family Secrets, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, It Sucks To Be Sulli, Jung Yunho | Loves Pink, Kim Jaejoong | Hates Pink, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-23 01:25:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14321505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquariuslover/pseuds/aquariuslover
Summary: The crew encounters a mysterious stranger and everything changes. Life aboard the Star Ship Expectations will never be the same as secrets unfold, sacrifices are made, and lives hang in the balance.





	1. Chapter 1

Once upon a time she had smiled every day.  
  
As a young innocent girl she had been able to find joy in almost everything, and she spread her joy with the power of her smile. She had lived a pampered life, full of understanding, full of love, and full of kindness. Like all children who are cherished deeply, she knew very little of fear.  
  
Her parents were peacemakers, and they stressed the importance of understanding to their beloved daughter. She grew up admiring her parents, and with a fervent desire to continue their work. To work for a more peaceful universe, and to share her smile with all she encountered.  
  
But that world was lost to her.  
  
As the much older man frantically thrust into her, nearing his climax, she tried to remember the last time she had smiled. Had it been as long as a year ago?  
  
The man’s breathing increased, wheezing into her ear, and he stiffened as he expelled his seed into her much used body. The man then collapsed against her, pushing her into the large, round hay bale she had been leaning against.  
  
“Sorry,” he said after a few minutes, pulling out of her and trying to find the strength in his legs to stand. “I really…thank you.”  
  
She turned around, straightened her dress and looked at the man, and thought that if she did still smile, she might have smiled for him. “You will keep your promise?”  
  
“Yes, Miss Sulli…yes, I will see he gets a good proper grave. I won’t toss him in the river,” the groundskeeper assured her.  
  
Tears filled her eyes as she thought of the body lying on the river’s bank. “He was from my world…my far, far, far away world,” she said softly, suddenly feeling the need to explain.  
  
“He never said anything…he was too injured, but I bet he was mighty nice,” the groundskeeper said as he pulled up his pants.  
  
Sulli wiped her eyes and sniffled. “He was very smart…my cousin…she was always talking about how smart he was.”  
  
“You can visit his grave; nobody will ever know…it will be our secret,” the groundskeeper assured the distraught woman…child.  
  
“Yes, I can visit his grave…the last piece of my world,” Sulli said, closing her eyes.  
  
The groundskeeper looked nervously up at the mansion in the distance. “Miss Sulli, shouldn’t you be going? I will bury him tomorrow morning…I promise. I keep my word. A deal is a deal.”  
  
She nodded her head and opened her eyes. “Yes, I need to clean up before the master calls for me tonight,” she told him, and started limping away.  
  
The groundskeeper watched as the beautiful girl dragged her dead leg behind her, and he felt a deep sympathy for her. “Miss Sulli in your world…there wasn’t people like the master was there?”  
  
“No,” she told him without turning around. “In my world the…the good people were strong, and a man like our master could never have existed there.”  
  
************  
  
  
“I think something happened between the two of them.”  
  
Kyuhyun looked up from his breakfast of rice and fruit to look at his husband, who had his gaze locked on Siwon and Sungmin. “Huh?”  
  
“I sense something between the two of them…there is awkwardness there that didn’t use to be there,” Ryeowook informed Kyuhyun as they ate in the mess hall. They both watched as Siwon and Sungmin walked off in different directions. The two men had accidently run into each other at the food replicators and pleasantly greeted each other, but then quickly left in opposite directions.  
  
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes at his matchmaking husband. “I really don’t think Siwon swings that way, and usually, I can tell.”  
  
“What if he can’t help it? What if he fell in love with Sungmin as person…not as a gender?” Ryeowook asked earnestly.  
  
“You know, if you were having sex with me, you wouldn’t be so obsessed with other people’s sex lives.”  
  
“Don’t even start with me. I am not interested in their sex lives. I’m interested in love.”  
  
“I love you.”  
  
Ryeowook sighed, exasperated, and informed his husband, “You have 194 days to go…deal with it.”  
  
Kyuhyun tilted his head back and whined, “Since we are nearing the half way point, I should get a reward or something.”  
  
“For goodness sakes,” Ryeowook groaned.  
  
“I am serious! You could touch me or something,” Kyuhyun hissed into Ryeowook’s ear. “It wouldn’t kill you.”  
  
Ryeowook cringed and leaned away from Kyuhyun and hissed back at him, “Touch yourself.”  
  
“I do, but it isn’t the same,” Kyuhyun informed him, not amused.  
  
Ryeowook clamped his hand over his ears and sang, “Lalala, I’m not listening to you. Lalala, I’m not listening to you, Lalala.”  
  
“Oh, stop it!” Kyuhyun snapped, pulling Ryeowook’s hands away from his ears.  
  
“I see you two are as mature as you always were,” Commander Yoochun stated as he sat down at the table facing them.  
  
“I am very mature,” Commander Cho informed Yoochun, letting go of Ryeowook.  
  
“Well, I’m not feeling very mature today, so let’s trade places. I will beam down to Trysor, and you can have the bridge,” Yoochun told him, not bothering to hide his apprehension.  
  
“Absolutely not; I get to feel the real ground under my feet this time. Plus, if they want to offer me delicious food to eat, I will just have to enjoy it,” Kyuhyun replied. “You will just have to take the bridge today.”  
  
“I can’t believe Yunho took today off…he’s the captain; he can’t take today off,” Yoochun grumbled.  
  
“You know as well as I do, he isn’t really taking the day off…he is incapable of it,” Kyuhyun told Yoochun.  
  
“He should, though…everybody should. It’s good to take a break, and I hope Jae keeps him distracted from the business of running the ship,” Ryeowook told them.  
  
Kyuhyun smiled and rubbed his hands together. “In 194 days, Dr. Cho and I are going to take a week off.”  
  
“We will see,” Ryeowook answered doubtfully. “Somebody has to last 194 days first.”  
  
“Oh, I will last…and then it’s going to be a week of Cho martial bliss,” Kyuhyun winked and told his husband, full of confidence.  
  
“Sungmin is completely capable of watching the bridge,” Yoochun whined, ignoring the Chos. “I think he should watch it while I stay in engineering where I belong.”  
  
Ryeowook looked to the table where Sungmin, Junsu, Donghae and Eunhyuk sat, and looked back at Yoochun, and asked, “Are you ever going to tell us what you did to make…Junsu hate you so much?”  
  
“You think he hates me?” Yoochun asked anxiously.  
  
The Chos shared a knowing look with each other, before Kyuhyun answered the man’s question, “Well, before he just tried to avoid you, and now…it seems like he doesn’t like you very much.”  
  
“What did you do to him?” Ryeowook demanded.  
  
Yoochun winced and then just admitted it, “When I was in my female form, I made a pass at him.”  
  
“What kind of pass?” Kyuhyun asked, noticing Yoochun’s discomfort.  
  
“Well, we came very close to sealing the deal,” Yoochun confessed.  
  
“But you didn’t…did you?” Ryeowook asked.  
  
Yoochun shook his head. “I said something he didn’t like. He freaked out on me and ran off.”  
  
Ryeowook’s eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”  
  
“I was admiring his ass…and he just lost it.”  
  
“I am honestly impressed that you even got that far,” Kyuhyun admitted with awe. “I mean he’s so…decent.”  
  
“So, you almost tricked Junsu into having sex with you, while you were in your female form…you’re disgusting!” Ryeowook declared, glaring at Yoochun now. “He needs love! He doesn’t need some ass-obsessed pervert!”  
  
“I made sure he knew from the start it was about sex and nothing else, and it would have been great,” Yoochun explained, not the least bit offended by Ryeowook’s outburst.  
  
“I am curious; when the machine changed you into females…did it increase your sex drive or something?” Kyuhyun asked, and then reached over and wrapped his arm around Ryeowook, “Dr. Cho here jumped in bed with me, and was more than willing.”  
  
Ryeowook gritted his teeth, and glared at Kyuhyun for bringing up such a humiliating memory.  
  
“Really? So did you two?” Commander Yoochun asked, intrigued.  
  
Ryeowook snorted and informed the other man, “As if. He couldn’t very well get it up if he was too busy hiding under the covers from all my scary, girly parts.”  
  
Yoochun laughed loudly, and Kyuhyun turned absolutely red as Ryeowook continued, “It’s sad that I wasted such an opportunity on him. I should have searched out other…braver men.”  
  
“Yeah…well, I don’t even think so!” Kyuhyun sputtered out. “I could have gotten it up…your breath was just bad.”  
  
Ryeowook rolled his eyes at his husband. “Excuses, Excuses.”  
  
“It wasn’t an excuse, it was horrible!”  
  
“It’s shame you missed the opportunity, Ryeowook. I mean, I prefer my male body, but having sex as a woman wasn’t unpleasant. It was quite enjoyable.”  
  
Kyuhyun and Ryeowook both turned back to Yoochun now. “You said you didn’t,” the couple said at the same time.  
  
Yoochun smiled. “Oh, I didn’t with Junsu. I found a more willing partner…and when I say willing…I mean he went all night long. The man has some serious stamina…I enjoyed myself immensely.”  
  
Kyuhyun darted his eyes at Ryeowook, whose mouth had fallen open as he gawked at Yoochun, and then asked, “So, was it only a one time thing?”  
  
“Oh, we did it several times…actually, I lost count of how many times we did it that night, but it was only a one night thing. He isn’t attracted to men, and once the pleasant afterglow of my multiple, and I do mean multiple orgasms diminished…I’m not exactly attracted to him. It was just one night of hot sex,” Yoochun explained.  
  
“Who was it?” Ryeowook couldn’t help but ask.  
  
Yoochun cringed and looked back at the table where Junsu sat with his friends. “I think that’s a secret best left alone,” Yoochun told Ryeowook, with a tinge of regret seeping into his voice.  
  
*******  
  
  
 _“You are always so tight…fuck.”_  
  
Jaejoong, who was on all fours, pushed back toward Yunho, as his lover’s thrusting increased, slapping their bodies together. Jaejoong used his Joong powers, to enhance the pleasure he was experiencing, and amplified it ten fold, flooding the both of them with intense feelings of ecstasy.  
  
Jaejoong cried out as Yunho reached underneath him, and took his hard, leaking cock in his hand. The mere touch was enough, and Jaejoong came, collapsing down on the bed. Yunho grabbed Jaejoong’s hips holding him up as his thrusting became harder, deeper and more desperate till he finally lost control of himself. Yunho’s body shuddered and Jaejoong soon felt sprouts of warm, thick fluid filling him up.  
  
An exhausted Yunho fell on top of Jaejoong, pressing his lover deeper into the mattress.  
  
 _“Will it always be like this?”_  
  
 _“Yes,”_  Jaejoong answered telepathically as he listened to his physically fit lover quickly recovering from the exertion. Yunho’s panting gave way to normal breathing, making Jaejoong sigh sadly…he loved to hear Yunho pant.  
  
“I’m one lucky bastard,” Yunho declared in a husky voice, and then he started kissing the back of Jaejoong’s neck.  
  
Jaejoong angled his neck, allowing Yunho more access. “ _You’re not a bastard, you’re a hero.”  
  
“A hero?”  
  
“Yes, my hero.”  
  
“I don’t know about that.”_  
  
 _“I know.”_  Jaejoong whimpered in disappointment when Yunho pulled out of him and gently flipped him over on his back.  
  
“You know what I know?” Yunho asked aloud in that same deep, husky voice, that made Jaejoong quiver all over inside.  
  
“What?” Jaejoong asked, looking up into deeply admiring eyes.  
  
“That the best day of my life was the day I found you. I might not have known it then…I didn’t know it, but it was. Everything the Guardian told us was true….I really believe that we are meant to be,” Yunho told his lover, unable to hide the blush that spread out across his cheeks.  
  
Jaejoong’s heart swelled and he reached up a hand and cupped Yunho’s face.  _“You are always so sappy after sex.”  
  
“I am not.”  
  
“Are too.”_  
  
Yunho bent down burying his face in Jaejoong’s chest.  _“Maybe a little,”_ he conceded, embarrassed.  
  
Jaejoong laughed, wrapping his arms around his mate and hugging him tightly against him.  _“One hundred and eighty Earth days since we bonded.”  
  
“The Cho’s obsession with numbers...influencing you?”  
  
“Maybe, but I like the thought of holding anniversaries sacred.”_  
  
Yunho lifted up and looked down at his lover’s face.  _“And here I let our Hundred Days Anniversary just slip away.”_  
  
Jaejoong stretched his arms out over his head.  _“I’ll forgive you this once, since you are all mine today.”_  
  
 _“I am always all yours.”_  Yunho replied as he slid back, caressing Jaejoong’s ass, motioning for his lover to lift up.  
  
Jaejoong reached down underneath his thighs, pulling them back towards his chest as Yunho pushed back inside of him.  _“Yes, you are.”_  
  
Yunho chuckled, tugging the contented man up to straddle his lap.  
  
Jaejoong was completely relaxed, and he easily took all of Yunho inside him. “This is good,” Jaejoong purred in approval as he braced his arms on Yunho’s shoulders and slowly slid up and down.  
  
“Mmmmm,” Yunho concurred as he found his lover’s lips, letting Jaejoong control the pace.  
  
A much unwanted thought occurred to Jaejoong as he broke from the kiss.  _“I hate myself so much for remembering this.”_  
  
 _“What?”_  Yunho asked mentally as his hands massaged his lover’s back.  
  
Jaejoong lowered his head to rest it on Yunho’s shoulder, stopping his movements, and whimpered in disappointment. _“Isn’t there somewhere you have to be?”_  
  
“Oh, crap!” Yunho exclaimed.  
  
****************  
  
  
“Captain, whatever feelings of guilt you are experiencing are completely illogical,” Changmin told his father, not bothering to hide his exasperation.  
  
Yunho resisted the immature urge to stick his tongue out at his son. “I always see away teams off. Don’t I, Lieutenant Lee?”  
  
“That you do, Sir,” Lieutenant Lee Donghae, the transporter chief, told them from his position behind the transporter panel.  
  
“So, see, your accusation that I was feeling guilty for not going is inaccurate,” Yunho informed his son.  
  
“But it kills you not to go,” Commander Cho said knowingly. “We will be careful.”  
  
“I know…and Trysor is our ally,” Yunho reminded himself. “It’s a routine mission.”  
  
Changmin frowned in dislike. “I would have hoped we would not have had to return so soon; that they have already managed to undo our corrections to their machinery this soon is troublesome.”  
  
“They just need some help with some calculations; it won’t take us five minutes,” Kyuhyun pointed out.  
  
“And then we can focus on brokering another deal with them for more food,” Shindong told them as he stepped up onto the transporter platform.  
  
“Yes, more food,” Jaejoong, who was standing beside the captain, agreed. He had developed a true fondness for cooking, and amazingly enough, food appeared to be the way to his son’s heart.  
  
Changmin nodded his head in agreement as he stepped up onto the transporter platform. “More food would be greatly appreciated.”  
  
Yunho smiled at his son and asked, “Do you always think of food?”  
  
Changmin looked down at his father and said, “No, only 23.7 percent of my day is spent thinking of food.”  
  
Yunho snorted. “I do believe you are fudging the numbers now.”  
  
“I do not fudge,” Changmin told Yunho, while arching his left eyebrow.  
  
Commander Cho laughed at them both as he got on the transporter platform, standing between Changmin and Shindong. “We will be back in no time; hopefully, with lots of food.”  
  
Yunho smiled at them and then turned to Donghae and ordered, “Energize.” Yunho looked back at the platform in time to see the three men being transported away.  
  
  
*************  
  
Kyuhyun, Shindong, and Changmin materialized in the private gardens outside the capitol building of Trysor, and were greeted immediately by the Trysorion president and his diplomatic party.  
  
“Welcome to Trysor! It is so good to see you all again,” the Trysorion President said, greeting them, as he reached out his hand to shake Commander Cho’s hand.  
  
Commander Cho smiled, taking the offered hand and shaking it firmly. “It’s good to be back, Mr. President. I regretted that I was unable to spend more time on the planet last time we were here.”  
  
The President smiled and responded, “Hopefully, you will be able to take the time to enjoy our beautiful world this visit. What do you think about our private gardens?”  
  
“They are breathtaking, and it is my sincere wish to get to explore more of your beautiful world,” Kyuhyun answered as he took in the flowering trees and countless flowers that filled the garden. Kyuhyun then motioned toward Changmin, and Shindong. “You know Consultant Shindong and Lieutenant Changmin.”  
  
“Of course, we owe a world of debt to Shindong for introducing our two peoples to each other. Lieutenant Changmin was instrumental in our technology advancement…” the president trailed off when he noticed that Changmin’s eyes were glued to somebody standing behind him.  
  
Kyuhyun and Shindong followed Changmin’s gaze till it landed on what Kyuhyun could honestly say was one of the most attractive men he had ever seen. The man had flawless skin, dark penetrating blue eyes, and dark auburn hair. He wore long blue robes that clung perfectly to him showing off his slender body. The man smiled back at them and started walking toward them.  
  
“Oh, yes, he wished to meet you,” the president explained, without introducing them properly.  
  
The man walked up to stand directly in front of the three members of the away team. “Yes, when I heard the crew of the magnificent Expectations was going to visit…I couldn’t help myself. I had to catch a glimpse.”  
  
“The magnificent Expectations…you are much too kind,” Commander Cho told him.  
  
“Nonsense, your great acts of daring and kindness are wildly known throughout this part of the galaxy. The ship that answers to no evil warlord, but only to its own conscience…it’s quite a remarkable concept,” the man told them.  
  
Shindong studied the man intently, and asked, “You are not from this planet?”  
  
The man laughed as if the mere thought was simply ridiculous. “No, I am just a visitor. There are a couple things here I need to collect, and then I will be on my way.”  
  
The president frowned for a moment, but soon a smile replaced the frown. “You will be greatly missed.”  
  
The man, whose eyes were locked on Changmin, did not turn around and face the president when he addressed him, “You are kind, but my time here is short. Actually, I’m being called away at this very moment,” the man informed them as he stared off at another man a short distance away that was waving for him. The man then gracefully bowed to each of the crew members. “It was a great honor to meet you…it was very informative.”  
  
The crew members watched uneasily as the beautiful man walked off to join another tall, thin man who was standing alone at the edge of the garden.  
  
“He’s too pretty,” Shindong blurted out loudly.  
  
The president nodded his head in agreement. “He is a vision of beauty. My wife swoons whenever he is near.”  
  
Commander Cho turned to face the Trysorion President. “Mr. President, if you would excuse us just for a moment, I need to discuss something with my team.”  
  
“Of course,” the president told them.  
  
“It shouldn’t take long,” the Commander told the president as he motioned Shindong and Changmin away.  
  
After they were out of hearing distance, Shindong whispered, “I am serious…he’s too pretty. Something isn’t right.”  
  
“I have to agree,” Kyuhyun said softly, and then said what was really bothering him. “He reminds me of Jaejoong.”  
  
Changmin, who was still watching the man, pointed out, “They do have similar hair styles. They are also both very pleasing to the eye.”  
  
“It’s more then how their bangs hang in the front…it’s an aura,” Kyuhyun insisted. “There is a confidence about him.”  
  
Changmin nodded his head. “I was just pointing out a fact…I do not disagree with your assessment.”  
  
“It’s almost like he’s toying with us,” Kyuhyun added. “I also do not like how we are isolated in this garden.”  
  
Shindong swallowed nervously. “If he is a Joong...then maybe he came in the hopes of seeing Jaejoong?”  
  
“Then why not ask for Jaejoong?” Kyuhyun questioned. “They knew Jaejoong wasn’t beaming down with us.”  
  
“Joongs don’t exactly go around advertising their presence,” Shindong reminded him.  
  
Changmin forced his eyes away from the man and told them, “I believe it would be best if we left this planet.”  
  
“I agree; all my survival instincts are telling me to run,” Shindong told them.  
  
Kyuhyun nodded his head in agreement and reached for his insignia.  
  
******************  
  
“Why are they still conscious? Also why are the president and his men still here?” Seung-hyun asked as the man walking up to him.  
  
The man stopped beside Seung-hyun and sighed. “How are they supposed to call and tell their captain the good news if they are unconscious? The president and his men are perfectly under my control.”  
  
“You only need one of them to be awake for that,” Seung-hyun reminded him as the both of them watched the three members of the Expectation’s crew. “My Lord will not be happy if you let this opportunity slip away…must I remind you that your happiness is directly connected to his?”  
  
The man’s expression darkened. “No, you do not. I am here to warn you. You will have only one opportunity to get that necklace on him. Jaejoong’s body will quickly adapt to the gas in the room, and if he gets the upper hand, then we are done for.”  
  
“Can you not take him in a fight?”  
  
“No, I can not take him in a fight. Jaejoong is very powerful, or he would not have been able to resist your vicious master’s advances for so long. If he thinks his mate is in danger, he will kill you with barely a thought…and I do mean thought. There will be no reaching for weapons…he will wish it, and it will be done.”  
  
Seung-hyun paled. “Then, what do we do if he adapts to the gas too quickly?”  
  
“You shoot the mate, he will be flooded by his mate’s pain and can be easily handled then…if you act fast,” the man explained.  
  
“My Lord left very specific instructions that he wanted them both alive.”  
  
“Then aim for his leg. I do not care where you shoot-” the man stopped abruptly, walking quickly toward the three men.  
  
“What’s going on?”  
  
“They are on to us,” the man informed Seung-hyun.  
  
Seung-hyun watched as Shindong and Kyuhyun collapsed to the ground, unconscious, but the tallest of the three, the one named Changmin, remained standing, his eyes locked on the man approaching him.  
  
Seung-hyun observed what appeared to be a mental battle between the two of them. The one named Changmin’s hand jerked, as he tried to will it to reach for the badge on his uniform. “I am going to require some assistance,” the man yelled.  
  
Seung-hyun pulled out the carefully concealed gun from the back of his pants and aimed and fired. The one named Changmin crumbled to the ground.  
  
“Violent idiot!” the man screamed and ran toward the wounded Changmin.  
  
Seung-hyun quickly followed him to the wounded man’s side. “You couldn’t control him. He was resisting you.”  
  
“So, you shot him?”  
  
“Yes, we can not allow anything to jeopardize the plan.”  
  
The man put pressure on the wound to Changmin’s stomach and cursed the blood flowing out of the younger man. “I hate this! I hate this so much! It’s wrong! You people are immoral, and your master is an evil bastard!”  
  
“And yet, you agreed to help us.”  
  
The man let go of Changmin and stood up, clenching his fists which were covered in Changmin’s blood. “I didn’t have a choice!”  
  
Seung-hyun smiled back at the man knowingly, and brutally told him, “No, you had a choice…and this is what you chose. You chose your happiness over theirs.”  
  
The man sank back down to the ground beside Changmin and applied more pressure to his wound. “And I fear I will be doomed to pay for that choice for the rest of my life.”  
  
Seung-hyun ignored the man’s self-indulgent words and looked down at the fatal wound to the abdomen. “I used a maze gun…your applying pressure will not save him. Nothing will.”  
  
The man looked down at the wound that continued to ooze blood. “That gun was a horrible creation if there ever was one.”  
  
“Why was he able to resist you?”  
  
The man, who was facing away from Seung-hyun, let a small smile grace his lips for just a second. “There are some humans who are completely esper nil and immune to any kind of telepathy or empathic powers.”  
  
“Like Hangeng’s newest slave?” Seung-hyun asked.  
  
“I do not keep up with Hangeng’s slaves, but I am sure his wife would be drawn to such a person. For a Joong…they are very refreshing people, and full of mystery,” the man explained.  
  
“Then I apologize for depriving you of such a prize.”  
  
The man stood up glaring at Seung-hyun. “Unlike that monster that owns you…I do not collect slaves. I’m not like you people!”  
  
“And yet…here you are.”  
  
The man fumed, but controlled his anger. “We…have to hurry. If the commander does not contact the ship very soon, the ship will be on guard.” The man then turned toward the president and his men and sent them a mental command to come and retrieve the bodies.  
  
***************  
  
Kyuhyun awoke to find himself in a small room devoid of any furniture, and standing above him was the beautiful man from earlier.  
  
“Ah, Commander you are awake,” the man told him. “If you would please get up, I am going to require your assistance.”  
  
Kyuhyun climbed to his feet. “I don’t think I am going to offer you any assistance.”  
  
The man smiled at him. “Oh, I fear I didn’t make myself clear. I didn’t say anything about you willingly providing it, did I?”  
  
“Who are you? Where is the rest of my team?” Commander Kyuhyun demanded, looking around the room.  
  
The beautiful man smiled at him and informed him, “You must forgive me for not introducing myself properly earlier. My name is Hyun Joong.”  
  
“Joong,” Kyuhyun repeated as he reached for his insignia, but almost immediately his hand came to a complete halt.  
  
“Yes, your chubby friend was right…I am much too pretty.”  
  
“You are manipulating us? This was all a trick? I didn’t think Joongs…were like this. Jae would not do this.”  
  
“Jaejoong has been very gentle with you and the other members on your ship,” Hyun Joong told Kyuhyun. “I do not have that option.”  
  
“I don’t understand…why are you doing this…what are you doing?”  
  
“I have been ordered to hand over your captain and Jaejoong to a monster that you might refer to as the Warlord ZhouMi. He is blackmailing me,” Hyun Joong told him.  
  
Fear gripped Kyuhyun at the mention of ZhouMi’s name. He had never heard anything remotely nice about the man. Kyuhyun swallowed nervously, because he had no doubts that the Joong was capable of doing exactly what was demanded of him. “Where are the Lieutenant and Shindong?”  
  
“They are in a cargo bay about to get loaded onto a merchant’s ship…where they will be sent to a planet of my choosing, and you will soon join them,” Hyun Joong explained, studying Kyuhyun intently.  
  
“For what purpose?”  
  
Hyun Joong ignored Kyuhyun’s question and told him, “I regretfully have to inform you that your Lieutenant Jung…the son of your captain, has been injured.”  
  
“Is he alright?” Kyuhyun demanded, taking a step toward the other man.  
  
The Joong shook his head as he narrowed his eyes and peered into Kyuhyun’s mind. “No,  _human_  could survive such a wound...but I’m sure he is quite the rapid healer. Isn’t he?”  
  
“What did you do to him? No human can survive it? What kind of wound? We have to get him back to the ship! Ryeowook can help him,” Kyuhyun shouted at the Joong. “You can’t just let him die.”  
  
“Listen to me,” Hyun Joong snapped and grabbed Kyuhyun by the shoulders. “No,  _human_  can survive such a wound…and he isn’t going back to your ship.”  
  
Kyuhyun pushed the Joong away. “You are going to hand Yunho and Jaejoong over to ZhouMi…and you are going to let Changmin die? Are you sure you are not the monster?”  
  
The other man from earlier walked into the room, clapping his hands. “These humans are quite perceptive and noble, aren’t they?”  
  
Hyun Joong continued to stare at Kyuhyun, not bothering to look at Seung-hyun. “Yes, they are very different. They wouldn’t kill, rape and torture on your master’s orders.”  
  
“No, they wouldn’t; they are not like you and me,” Seung-hyun replied. “Don’t forget your hands will never wash clean after today.”  
  
“We must contact the ship now, we are running out of time,” Hyun Joong told them, closing his eyes.  
  
*************  
  
 _“What happened to today belonging to me?”_  
  
 _“I just need to look over this one report, and then I will be all yours again,”_ Yunho promised as they entered the bridge.  
  
Jaejoong stared after Yunho as he headed for the Captain’s Ready Room.  _“Whatever, you just missed the bridge.”_  
  
 _“Five minutes.”_  Yunho stopped at the entrance to his office and turned around to face Jaejoong. “Aren’t you coming with me?”  
  
“No, I think I will hang out on the bridge with Yoochun for a bit,” Jaejoong said with a devilish smile, as he felt Commander Yoochun internally wince at his words.  
  
Yunho shrugged and entered his office, and Jaejoong practically pranced to the center of the bridge, where he plopped down in his councilor’s chair beside Commander Yoochun and mischievously told him, “This must be so awkward for you.”  
  
“I would rather be in engineering, but one does what they have to,” Yoochun replied, avoiding looking at the Joong.  
  
Jaejoong laughed out loud. “It’s hard to give up what you really want…to have to settle for seconds, isn’t it?”  
  
Yoochun mentally cursed the day that Yunho got himself attached to the telepath sitting beside him. “One does what he has to do.”  
  
Jaejoong rolled his eyes and stared at the ensigns sitting in front of him, debating on whether he should expand his game. Torturing Commander Yoochun was fun, but...  
  
“Don’t,” Commander Yoochun ordered, disturbing Jaejoong from his thoughts by reaching out and taking Jaejoong’s hand.  
  
Jaejoong jerked his hand away from Commander Yoochun, but scrutinized the man’s feelings. “It’s a terrible feeling, isn’t it?”  
  
“Which one?” Commander Yoochun asked in a soft voice.  
  
Jaejoong got up from the chair and smiled unsympathetically down at Commander Yoochun and sent him a telepathic message.  _“One feeling is only horrible because you refuse to embrace it. The feelings of regret that you suffer from now…will only grow.”_  
  
“Okay, I am done,” Yunho declared, stepping out of his office. “Commander, you have the bridge ‘til Commander Cho returns.”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Commander Yoochun agreed.  
  
“No!” Jaejoong cried out in a huffy tone as Ensign Choi stepped up to Yunho with purposeful intent.  
  
 _“Behave,”_  Yunho sent to Jaejoong and then asked the ensign standing in front of him, “What is it, Ensign?”  
  
“Commander Cho is calling from the planet and is requesting to speak with you,” Ensign Choi told the captain.  
  
“Why didn’t my…” Yunho trailed off, looking down at his insignia, and then to a very guilty-looking Jaejoong.  
  
 _“You turned my insignia off!”  
  
“It’s supposed to be my day!”  
  
“I am the captain! You can’t turn my insignia off!”  
  
“Like they couldn’t find you if they needed you badly enough.”_  
  
Yunho glared daggers at Jaejoong and turned his insignia on and tapped it. “Commander, what is going on?”  
  
“Captain! We have wonderful news. The Trysorion people are reporting that a couple weeks ago, some space traders that deal with the Warlord Hangeng were here, and they have news of our missing crew.”  
  
“Do they know where they are?” Yunho asked his hopes soaring high.  
  
Commander Kyuhyun’s happily replied. “Sir, apparently Hangeng sold the ambassadors’ daughter to a rich merchant that works with Warlord ZhouMi, and Lieutenant Choi is rumored to still be with Hangeng. There are others on the planet the president thinks that might know more…but they are unwilling to share all their information.”  
  
 _“Sounds like I need to pay them a visit.”  
  
“For once Jaejoong…I couldn’t agree more.”_  
  
“Commander, please tell the Trysorion President that I will be right down,” Yunho told the commander.  
  
“Yes, sir,” Commander Kyuhyun responded.  
  
“Captain, out,” Yunho said, ending his connection with Commander Cho and turning to face Ensign Choi. “We will get both your sister and your cousin back.”  
  
Young Ensign Choi, whose eyes were suddenly moist, nodded his head at the captain. “I know you will, Sir.”  
  
“And that will be a very good day,” Commander Yoochun said walking up to stand beside the captain.  
  
“Yes, it will be,” Yunho agreed and turned to Commander Yoochun. “Have Ensign Kangin meet us in the transporter room immediately.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Yoochun replied, as Yunho headed for the lift with Jaejoong at his side. “Good Luck, Captain.”  
  
Yunho entered the elevator, and turned around to face Commander Yoochun. “Hopefully, luck will be on our side.”


	2. Chapter 2

Seung-hyun tensed and tried to appear calm as Lord ZhouMi stormed toward him, wearing long lavish robes of maroon and fuming in anger.  
  
“I’ve been summoned,” Lord ZhouMi hissed with a snarl upon his face. “Tell me Seung-hyun, who dares to summon me?”  
  
“My Lord, the Joong insisted…he says he has another deal to offer you.”  
  
ZhouMi furrowed his brows and studied his nervous officer. “You reported that the capture of Jaejoong and his mate was successful.”  
  
“It was, My Lord,” Seung-hyun eagerly answered.  
  
Lord ZhouMi slapped Seung-hyun across the face without warning. “Tell me what is going on. I don’t have time for your timid, backward explanations. Just tell me already!”  
  
Seung-hyun was resisting the urge to reach up and touch his burning cheek, so he quickly explained, “The capture went as planned. The Joong had warned that Jaejoong’s body would quickly neutralize the gas, so his mate was given a nonlethal shot to the shoulder. The combination of the gas and the injury to his mate successfully distracted Jaejoong long enough for us to place the necklace upon him. We were preparing to send them to you…when the Joong stopped us. He said they were not going anywhere ‘til he talked to you in person. He said he had an offer you wouldn’t be able to refuse.”  
  
Lord ZhouMi appeared to be in deep thought as he contemplated Seung-hyun’s words. “How intriguing; take me to him.”  
  
“Yes, My Lord,” Seung-hyun answered, promptly turning and heading down the hallway. They were inside the capitol building of Trysor.  
  
ZhouMi took in the emptiness of the building and responded, “It’s rather empty for a capitol building isn’t it?”  
  
“The Joong had the Trysorion President send everybody home,” Seung-hyun replied.  
  
“It would be difficult to exert that much control over so many people,” ZhouMi surmised. “Even for a Joong…especially when the Trysorion people acted so unwillingly. They will be broken-hearted when they find out what they have done to their beloved allies.”  
  
Seung-hyun reached a double door and turned to face his master. “We are here, My Lord.”  
  
ZhouMi pushed the doors open and strolled into the room, full of arrogance. “Tell me about this deal you believe I won’t be able to refuse. I must warn you, if it doesn’t involve me dancing on Jaejoong’s dead body…I’m not interested.”  
  
Hyun Joong, who had been standing at the window looking out on the planet he had betrayed, turned and faced the man who had successfully taken control of him. “There are some who say you have only one redeeming quality.”  
  
“There are some who don’t know me,” ZhouMi piped back at the Joong as he took in the room. It was a grand dining hall for all the important politicians of Trysor. ZhouMi approved of the white walls, splendid furniture, lavish red curtains, and the shiny chandelier that hung from the ceiling.  
  
Hyun Joong inhaled a deep breath as he watched the warlord pay him very little attention, as he went to an exquisitely set up table and picked up a round, pink piece of fruit. “They say your one redeeming quality is that you do not break your word.”  
  
Lord ZhouMi bit into the fruit and savored its sweet taste, ignoring the Joong. After finding a chair that he found aesthetically pleasing to his eye, the warlord took a seat. ZhouMi slowly ate his piece of fruit before replying to the Joong’s statement. “Who says an evil tormenter can’t honor his word?”  
  
“If you accept my deal, I want your word that you will allow Jaejoong and Captain Yunho to leave this planet without your interference.”  
  
“You are hilarious!” Lord ZhouMi declared as he leaned back in his chair, cackling.  
  
“I’m actually being very serious.”  
  
Lord ZhouMi stopped laughing and reached up and stroked the necklace that was around his neck. “As long as I wear this necklace, my mind is closed to you. I think you would do well not to forget who holds your life in his hands.”  
  
“I haven’t forgotten. You said if I provided you with Jaejoong and his mate, then you would release….my mate,” Hyun Joong said the last two words, full of yearning. “I just want to change the terms of our deal. I will give you something just as valuable in place of Jaejoong and his mate.”  
  
“Trying to change the terms of the deal, are you?” ZhouMi’s eyes narrowed in distrust. “Do I need to remind you that your mate is out of your reach, and if I don’t give frequent assurances to those that hold her…of my continued good health, then she will be killed. I don’t need to remind you what happens to a Joong when its mate dies…do I?”  
  
“No, you don’t. I still believe you will take the new deal,” Joong said, walking closer to ZhouMi. “If you kill Jaejoong and Yunho, then you only get a short-lived revenge, and they will just go on living in another life.”  
  
“Explain that last bit again,” ZhouMi questioned, looking skeptical.  
  
“I have plundered the captain’s mind, but it wasn’t easy. He is a remarkable specimen of humanity. I found out that Jaejoong and the captain were given a tour of their past lives by a Guardian of Time. You might kill them in this life…but they will just be born again in another life. They have a timeless love that even the Guardian was in awe of.”  
  
“You are going to make me vomit,” ZhouMi complained, looking nauseous. “Such romantic nonsense.”  
  
“Vomit all you want, but it’s the truth…it’s why you could never break Jaejoong,” Hyun Joong informed him.  
  
“Oh,” ZhouMi said, pondering the Joong’s words. “That would explain it…because I really…and I mean I  _really_  tried to break him.”  
  
“A timeless love just goes on and on - one life has no affect on it,” Hyun Joong tried to explain. “It is the accumulation of thousands of lives.”  
  
“But I want to dance on Jaejoong’s dead body in this life, and I also want to chop his mate….. _the remarkable specimen of humanity_  that he might be, up into little pieces of food and feed him to my little Pookie,” ZhouMi explained. “What do I care about their next life? It isn’t like I will be aware of it.”  
  
“There are legends of the necklaces breaking under the power of a bond fueled by a timeless love…of course, it is just legend,” Hyun Joong said in a soft, knowing voice.  
  
ZhouMi snorted. “I have no interest in made-up legends.”  
  
“But Joong legends are proving to be true lately; I would be remiss if I didn’t inform you of them,” Hyung Joong said with a confident smile.  
  
Something in the Joong’s smile did not sit well with ZhouMi, causing him to bark out, “What exactly is your deal?”  
  
Hyun Joong closed his eyes and said the words he knew would change everything, “If you accept my deal…I will provide you with another Joong.”  
  
Lord ZhouMi quickly took in the Joong’s words and went to calculating all the possibilities. “Sorry, not interested in you. You are already bonded…and I’m not interested in your mate either.”  
  
“I am offering you an unbonded Joong.”  
  
“Go on,” the warlord ordered, instantly intrigued.  
  
“Unbonded…and very fragile right now,” Hyun Joong told the warlord as he turned away from him, facing the window.  
  
“Why is he fragile?”  
  
“He doesn’t know he is a Joong.”  
  
ZhouMi jumped out of his chair, knocking it over. “You are pissing me off. Explain everything now! How can a Joong not know he is a Joong? How can a being with self-healing abilities be fragile? I have had people killed for causing me less aggravation!”  
  
Hyun Joong did not turn to face the impatient warlord. “He’s Jaejoong’s son.”  
  
“How is that possible?” ZhouMi demanded, walking up to Hyun Joong, grabbing him by the shoulders, and tossing him around ‘til they were facing each other. “Jaejoong has not had time to give birth to a Joong baby.”  
  
Hyun Joong closed his eyes, hating himself at this moment. “From what I can gather…which isn’t much, since Jaejoong is blocked to me…the child is from the future. In the future, Jaejoong and Yunho must have sent him back in time when he was just a baby.”  
  
“Why would they do that?” ZhouMi asked, calmer now, his curiosity growing by leaps and bounds.  
  
“There is only one reason…they were dying. They couldn’t save themselves, so they sent the child back in time to his father…where his bond with his father would be enough to keep him alive.”  
  
“How can he not know he is a Joong?”  
  
Hyun Joong stared at the floor and continued, “I have no idea. I didn’t even know he was a Joong ‘til I tried to take control of his mind. He has no idea of his connection to Jaejoong…he thinks he is a regular human. Jaejoong has been lying to them all…the captain has no clue.”  
  
ZhouMi pushed the Joong away from the window. He stood looking out the window intertwining his fingers. “What is he like?”  
  
“He’s very tall. He’s extremely intelligent. He’s very handsome…he’s also beautiful…but he’s a manly beautiful,” Hyun Joong explained. “He’s masculine, and not feminine. He’s flawless.”  
  
ZhouMi fanned himself with is hand as the flames of desire took root in him. “You are making me hot. I like real men…he’s sounds better then Jaejoong! But…he is Jaejoong’s son. Therefore, he will resist me! Jaejoong would be incapable of having a nice, compliant child.”  
  
“But he is injured-”  
  
“Injured!” ZhouMi shouted, turning to face Seung-hyun, who was quietly standing across the room beside the door, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. “You didn’t tell me anybody else had been injured!”  
  
“My Lord, I have no memory of anybody else being injured. I only remember injuring Jaejoong’s mate,” Seung-hyun bowed and told his master.  
  
“I rid his mind of any knowledge of Jaejoong’s son. He does not remember seeing him, much less shooting Changmin-”  
  
“Changmin…that’s his name? Changmin…I like how that name rolls off my tongue. Changmin,” ZhouMi said with a dreamy look upon his face. “My own mate…dedicated to my sexual pleasure, and I can’t forget the healing!”  
  
“He is unaware of his ability to heal himself, much less his ability to bond. He has never taken on the Joong form that he is aware of. Healing himself will be quite shocking to him. The advanced science of his father’s people…has always healed him. He has never had to heal himself. It’s very likely the healing process will make his Joong qualities immerge…he would be like a newborn Joong babe without its parents to calm it,” Hyun Joong explained.  
  
“I would comfort…and calm him,” ZhouMi moaned as he leaned his neck back imagining the possibilities. “I would love to do so.”  
  
“To suddenly be telepathic, empathic…the mental shock would be too much; he would be totally susceptible to you.”  
  
Lord ZhouMi closed his eyes and licked his lips, savoring the thought. “And we would bond?”  
  
“If he has the bonding ability of the Joong-”  
  
“What do you mean ‘if’?” ZhouMi barked, glaring at the Joong.  
  
Hyun Joong stared ZhouMi in the face, not backing down from the erratic warlord. “There hasn’t been a hybrid Joong in a thousand years…we thought they were just legend. I am not a specialist on what he is and what he isn’t capable of. I do know this…he is the son of the one that got away from you. Death is nothing compared to what Jaejoong will feel when he knows you have his son.”  
  
ZhouMi took a step back, completely amazed, and said, full of admiration, “Why Hyun Joong, you are after my own heart. What delicious evil has taken root in you?”  
  
“No, it-”  
  
“Yes, it has! Don’t deny it. Embrace it. You are right; this is a punishment much worse than death for Jaejoong. I delight in the thought of how much anguish it will cause him to know…that I have his son…his son’s body to plunder and to do with as I please. Yes, a fate much worse than death.”  
  
“So you accept the deal?”  
  
ZhouMi smirked and winked at the Joong. “I do, but I have one stipulation.”  
  
*************  
  
“Report!” Commander Yoochun demanded as he entered the bridge.  
  
Ensign Choi shook his head as he looked at scans of the planet at his station. “Sir, with all the dilithium deposits on that planet…our scans are rendered useless.”  
  
Commander Yoochun slapped his hand on the bridge railing that separated the top and bottom levels of the bridge. “This is so frustrating! I never thought I would see a day where I would curse dilithium!”  
  
Lieutenant Sungmin entered the bridge with Ensign Eunhyuk. The both of them had just returned from the planet.  
  
“Well?” Commander Yoochun inquired.  
  
Sungmin just shook his head, perturbed. “They don’t know anything. The president apparently declared it some national holiday and sent the masses home. The president swears he has no memory of the day at all. All his advisors are claiming the same.”  
  
“And here we are without Jae! It’d be nice to know if they were lying or telling the truth,” Yoochun grumbled.  
  
Eunhyuk spoke up, “They did offer to send whatever advisor or even the president himself up here for Dr. Cho to run tests on-”  
  
“They want to see if he can restore their memories,” Sungmin finished.  
  
Dr. Cho, who had entered the bridge quietly, pointed out, “That doesn’t sound like a people who are lying.”  
  
“No, it doesn’t,” Commander Yoochun agreed with a frown, walking toward the Captain’s Chair in the center of the bridge. “But I want one of them up here anyway. If they are volunteering, then we need to make sure they don’t know anything.”  
  
“Agreed,” Lieutenant Yesung, who was in Commander Cho’s chair, concurred.  
  
Ensign Junsu, who sat at his station at the helm, nodded his head, “It has been hours…I just hope they are alright.”  
  
********  
  
Kyuhyun awoke to find himself enclosed in an eight by eight metal box with Shindong and Changmin. The box had vents at the top of it that allowed air in and provided a small amount of light. “Changmin!”  
  
“Let him sleep,” Shindong whispered from the other end of the box. “It’s better if he sleeps.”  
  
Kyuhyun was on his knees beside his friend instantly. “We have to help him.”  
  
Shindong did not move; he just closed his eyes. “There is no helping him. I already checked him, and they…they used a maze gun on him.”  
  
Kyuhyun found the nerve to reach down and pull Changmin’s bloody uniform shirt up to view the wound that pierced the Lieutenant’s stomach. The wound edges were nasty and jagged and black streaks extended from it, spreading out across the abdomen. “A maze gun…what is that?” Kyuhyun barely managed to get out.  
  
“It’s a dreadful…lethal weapon. The bullet is like a parasite that starts growing after the victim is shot….there isn’t a cure. It doesn’t kill instantly…it likes to keep its food alive for awhile,” Shindong explained, his eyes still closed, refusing to look at the two other men.  
  
“How long?”  
  
“Usually they are dead within twenty-four hours, but I have heard of some people lasting for two days…but it’s an agonizing death.”  
  
Kyuhyun reached for Changmin’s hand and squeezed it. “That isn’t going to happen…we are going to get back to the Expectations, and Ryeowook will fix him up in no time.”  
  
Shindong opened his eyes and looked at Kyuhyun. “Do you know something I don’t?”  
  
“What do you remember?” Kyuhyun asked the man.  
  
“I remember that we were all thinking it would be a good idea to get back to the ship, and then the next thing I remember is waking up in here. Lieutenant Jung was bleeding out everywhere, and even though I knew it was hopeless, I held pressure on the wound ‘til it stopped bleeding,” Shindong said as he held up his bloody hands as proof. “Shortly afterwards, they tossed you in here, and you were unconscious. Right after they put you in here…the ship took off.”  
  
“The ship? We are on a ship?” Kyuhyun frowned as he suddenly remembered what the Joong had said. “We are on a merchant’s ship.”  
  
“I figured as much. There are hundreds of ships that visit the planet daily. The planet is rich in food and trades with multiple other worlds.”  
  
Kyuhyun looked down at Changmin, who was still out of it, and told Shindong, “That man was a-”  
  
“A Joong…I figured as much.”  
  
“It appears ZhouMi was blackmailing him.”  
  
Shindong swallowed nervously, “Did he say what ZhouMi was after?”  
  
“The captain and Jaejoong…he made me call for them,” Kyuhyun explained, full of guilt. “He used me to get them to beam down to the planet.”  
  
“Did he mention me?” Shindong asked nervously.  
  
Kyuhyun looked up from the unconscious Changmin and stared at the rogue trader turned ship’s consultant. “They didn’t mention you.”  
  
Shindong rubbed his face and stretched out his legs, and admitted, “That doesn’t really make me feel any better. Lord ZhouMi has been looking for me…I betrayed him, so my chances of surviving are extremely low.”  
  
“We will find a way to survive. We don’t even know where they are taking us or why.”  
  
“That sounds all nice and hopeful, Commander Cho, but I think it’s time you accept that we are in a shit-poor situation.”  
  
“I do realize that, but I’m not ready to accept that we are in a hopeless situation. There are too many things we need to find out.”  
  
“Changmin would probably disagree with you,” Shindong retorted as he looked down on the pale, lifeless lieutenant.  
  
“Actually, I agree with the commander; there are too many unknown variables for us to jump to any conclusions,” Changmin replied, shocking them both.  
  
“Changmin!” Kyuhyun exclaimed in surprise. “I didn’t know you were awake?”  
  
“Commander, I wish adamantly I was not. The pain is making it quite difficult to think. I have always admired the Vulcan race, wishing to emulate them, but it seems I lack the ability to control my emotions when it comes to excruciating pain,” Changmin responded with his eyes clasped tightly shut.  
  
“How much did you hear?” Shindong asked awkwardly.  
  
“I know that I have a fatal wound, and if our circumstances do not make a drastic improvement, I will soon be dead. I know Lord ZhouMi most likely has Yunho and Jaejoong.”  
  
Shindong couldn’t help but feel guilty…the younger man had heard it all. “Why did they shoot you, kid?”  
  
“I am hardly a child,” Changmin said, correcting him. “I was able to resist the Joong. In order to control me, they shot me.”  
  
“You were able to resist him?” Kyuhyun repeated, stunned. “I couldn’t resist him at all. He could have made me do anything…how did you resist him?”  
  
“I have always had superior mental-” Changmin stopped abruptly and let out anguished cry of pain that had Shindong moving away from the wall to grab his other hand.  
  
“Changmin,” Kyuhyun pleaded as the science officer’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell into an unconscious state. “Changmin, wake up.”  
  
“Don’t,” Shindong said, shaking his head at Kyuhyun. “There isn’t anything we can do for him…being unconscious is a blessing. The pain with this wound is unimaginable, I am told; that he was even able to talk to us was a miracle.”  
  
“You are right, of course,” Kyuhyun agreed, looking down at his old friend. “I have to think…there is something I am missing.”  
  
***********  
  
“Jae isn’t here! Now wake up already,” were the sharp words of Kangin that Yunho heard upon waking, followed by a gentle slap to his left cheek.  
  
Yunho’s eyes fluttered open to stare up at his old friend. “What?”  
  
“Well, Sleeping Beauty finally woke up. I hope that you don’t think just because you were shot that you can sleep all day,” Kangin told him in his familiar, gruff voice.  
  
“Shot?” Yunho sat up immediately, and instantly grabbed for his left shoulder. ‘Who shot me?”  
  
“Hell if I know? I was nicely beaming down to the planet, and that’s all I remember ‘til I woke up in this cage with you.”  
  
 _“Jaejoong! Jaejoong! Where are you?”_  Yunho called out mentally.  
  
“Are you listening to me?” Kangin demanded.  
  
Yunho climbed to his feet, examining the cage…not actually a cage; it looked like an old-time jail cell from old Earth. There was a toilet, sink and bunk bed in it. Three sides of it were walls, and the fourth side was barred shut. “Yes, I am listening…it’s just that.”  
  
“You are worried about your wife?”  
  
Yunho stopped examining the jail cell to scowl at his old friend, who was standing beside him. “He isn’t my wife, and yes, I’m worried. I can sense him…but he isn’t answering me.”  
  
“I noticed. You have been yelling for him in your sleep.”  
  
“Why wouldn’t he answer me?” Yunho wondered. His worry grew as he reached up and pulled away his uniform to look at the hole in his shoulder. “I am hurt, and I think you have seen what Jae is like when I am hurt.”  
  
“True. He should be all over you with his sexual healing,” Kangin said, cringing as he remembered the last time he was witness to Jaejoong healing Yunho.  
  
“We did not have sex that time…he just needed me to focus on him.”  
  
“Well, he got you to focus.”  
  
Yunho blushed, hating the fact that his two oldest friends Kangin and Yoochun had both seen a little more of his relationship with Jae than he would have liked for them to have. “Hush, we have to get out of here. Jae isn’t answering me…he must be hurt. He must be in a healing sleep.”  
  
“I am all for escaping, but how is the shoulder?”  
  
“It’s fine…it does have an exit wound in the back, right?” Yunho asked, pointing toward the back of shoulder. Yunho wanted to make sure he didn’t have a bullet still in him.  
  
“Yeah, it does. I checked earlier when you were bellowing for your wife.”  
  
“He’s not my wife,” Yunho repeated and then added, “We need to focus. We are in a jail cell. I was shot. I have no memory of being shot, or of ever arriving to the planet. I can’t contact Jae. We do not know what happened to Changmin, Kyuhyun, or Shindong. We also don’t know who is responsible for this.”  
  
“I can tell you who is responsible,” a sharp voice said from the other side of the cage.  
  
Kangin and Yunho turned to stare at a scruffy-looking young man standing on the other side of jail cell. He appeared younger than the both of them. He was also shorter, with shaggy brown hair. “Why are you holding us against our will? Who are you?” Yunho demanded.  
  
“I think I only agreed to answer one question,” the young man told him rudely.  
  
“Okay then, who is responsible for this?”  
  
The shorter man gave them a smarmy smile and happily informed them, “The great Queen of the galaxy.”  
  
Yunho and Kangin shared a confused look with each other and then turned back to the other man. “There is a queen of the galaxy?” Yunho questioned.  
  
“That’s just what I call him. He calls himself Lord ZhouMi…lord of shit, maybe,” the shorter man told them.  
  
“That bastard has us,” Yunho said, suddenly feeling cold. What little Jaejoong had told him of the man was not good. The man had left Jaejoong to be tortured by the Zusaders.  
  
“Now, now,” the shorter man said holding up his hands. “I said he was responsible…I didn’t say he still had you.”  
  
“What is your name?” Yunho ordered.  
  
The shorter man took a step back, wiggling his fingers. “You aren’t the boss of me, Bossy.”  
  
“Name,” Yunho repeated, remaining calm.  
  
“Well, since you went and called the Queen a bastard, I kinda have a soft spot for you in my heart now, so I will tell you. My friends call me Ji Yong…you can call me Yong.”  
  
“I wish I could say it was nice to meet you, Yong, but being held prisoner always puts me in a foul mood. I am Captain Jung Yunho, and you can call me Captain, this man beside me is Kangin.”  
  
“You can call me Kangin,” Kangin added drily.  
  
“How about I call you priiisoonnners,” Yong told them impertinently.  
  
“You said that ZhouMi is responsible for us being here,” Yunho said, trying to get answers from the man.  
  
“That’s what I said.”  
  
“Can you tell me where we are at, and if there are more people being held here?” Yunho asked.  
  
“Oh, I don’t think the Queen would want me to say, so of course I will,” Yong told Yunho. “You are going to be held here for three weeks, then released; you are far underground in a bunker, and I am the lucky guard that gets stuck with you. Oh, and yes, there is another prisoner.”  
  
“Just one? What does this prisoner look like?” Yunho asked straight away.  
  
Yong sneered in dislike. “If I was, like, totally gay…I might think he was pretty, but since I’m not, I just think he looks like some girly man.”  
  
Kangin patted Yunho on the right shoulder. “That sounds like Jae to me.”  
  
“Is he hurt?” Yunho asked, worried.  
  
“Nope, he is just pacing around his cage…well, I should say ‘room’. He really got the better deal when it comes to the cages,” Yong told them.  
  
Yunho sighed in relief. “You said we will be released in three weeks…why three weeks?”  
  
“That’s what the Queen and his pet Joong ordered. Originally, you and the girly man were to be sent to the Queen…but that all changed.”  
  
“There are three other members of my crew that are unaccounted for…do you know anything about them?”  
  
Yong shook his head. “I’ve just been in the bunker waiting for your arrival. I don’t know anything about your missing crew.”  
  
Yunho’s brows furrowed, trying to take everything in. “So you are not giving us to ZhouMi…who do you work for?”  
  
“I work for the Queen,” Yong answered. “It makes me hurl to think I have to answer to the pointy-chinned bitch, but it’s better than being dead.”  
  
“Better than being dead?” Yunho repeated.  
  
“Not everybody who works for the Queen has a choice. Not all of us are sick freaks that get off by kissing his boney ass. Some of us get drafted into this line of work. He does control a lot of planets, and if I have to choose between death and working for the shitty Queen……then I am going to choose the option where I get to continue breathing.”  
  
Yunho took in the man’s words. “Can you give the other prisoner a message from me?”  
  
Yong snorted. “No, he has a force field around him. The sound is disabled, and I am not supposed to mess with the controls. And I was never good at charades.”  
  
Yunho smiled at the other man. “You look like a bright young man to me; I bet you could figure something out.”  
  
“Of course I could…my genius mind is why the Queen drafted my awesomeness into his servitude in the first place, but I am not feeling suicidal today…or any day for that matter,” Yong told them as he started walking away. “Bye, Bye, Bye.”  
  
When Yong was out of earshot, Kangin asked, “Do you think he was lying? Why hold us for only three weeks?”  
  
“I don’t know…why not take us? I mean if he went to all the trouble of getting us…why just let us go?  
  
“Doesn’t make any sense to me, but I’m okay with being released,” Kangin replied.  
  
Yunho just shook his head, feeling very uneasy. “I have never heard anything remotely decent about the man…he would want his revenge. Why change the terms now? Who is his pet Joong?”  
  
“Yong wasn’t talking about Jaejoong, was he?” Kangin asked carefully.  
  
“No, I don’t even think Yong realizes Jaejoong is a Joong, and Jaejoong would never help ZhouMi willingly,” Yunho answered. “Something is very wrong here.”  
  
  
*****************  
  
  
Kyuhyun sat against the side of the box, with Changmin’s head resting in his lap. Changmin had not spoken again, and hours had passed. Shindong just sat leaning against the cage, not saying anything. They had not seen their captors.  
  
Kyuhyun’s ears perked up when two voices from outside the metal box could be heard for the first time.  
  
“Aren’t you curious about who is in there?”  
  
“Not curious enough to look.”  
  
“Me either…I like my head where it is.”  
  
“So we are just going to drop them off and leave?”  
  
“Yeah, and they are to stay in the box the whole time.”  
  
“So that’s all?”  
  
“That’s all, except telling them that the one in blue and the fat one are the ones Lord ZhouMi wants.”  
  
“What about the third one?”  
  
“That one got lucky. He’s just going to end up a slave on Belara.”  
  
“Yeah, lucky him, but those other two poor souls, maybe it is best not to see them. I would rather not look at somebody that I was helping to deliver into Lord ZhouMi’s hands.”  
  
“Well the box is encoded; we couldn’t open it if we wanted to. It can only be opened by ZhouMi’s people…there is something in there he doesn’t want anybody else getting a hold of.”  
  
“We better get back to the bridge. We should be landing soon on Belara.”  
  
Kyuhyun looked at Shindong, contemplating what he had heard. “I know why ZhouMi would want you, but why Changmin?”  
  
Shindong, who had paled considerably after hearing his fate, turned to Kyuhyun and gave him a contemptuous look. “Really, Commander…you don’t know why ZhouMi would want Changmin?”  
  
Kyuhyun considered Shindong’s question. “He probably hates Yunho for taking Jaejoong from him…it’s to hurt Yunho?”  
  
“Are you still so brainwashed that you’re still incapable of an original thought?” Shindong asked, full of scorn. “Changmin did not fight off that Joong because of his superior mental abilities.”  
  
Kyuhyun looked down at the man, whose head rested in his lap. Changmin had a fatal wound…a wound Hyun Joong had said himself was fatal to humans.  _Humans_ …the Joong had kept stressing it was fatal to  _humans_. More of Hyun Joong’s words came back to him. “He thought Changmin was a quick healer.”  
  
“I bet he did.”  
  
“Changmin…is Jaejoong’s son,” Kyuhyun whispered as all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.  
  
“Finally!” Shindong proclaimed, banging his head against the box. “I realize Jaejoong was keeping you all fooled, but how much more obvious could it be?”  
  
“If you knew this, why didn’t you tell anybody? Kyuhyun demanded.  
  
“Because I like my mind as it is. I don’t want him tampering with it. He knew I wouldn’t talk if he left me alone.”  
  
“Why didn’t he tell anybody?”  
  
“Are you asking that seriously? We are on our way to be delivered to ZhouMi…if Changmin doesn’t die. He will wish he did,” Shindong told Kyuhyun as he looked at the wounded man, whose head was resting in the commander’s lap. “If I were a Joong, I would never leave the safety of their mysterious, never-seen planet.”  
  
“If Changmin is half Joong…why has he not healed himself? I have known him since the academy, and he goes to the doctor just like the rest of us.”  
  
Shindong looked away from Changmin and rubbed his face. “I don’t know. Maybe since he is only half Joong…he doesn’t get any of the cool powers.”  
  
Kyuhyun sat back in disbelief as things became clear to him. “Jae killed that vampire that was attacking Changmin, and then he fed us some bull about how it was Yunho’s son, so he could, and we just believed him.”  
  
“Don’t be too hard on yourself; it’s easy to be fooled when the one fooling can make you believe whatever he wants you to believe.”  
  
Kyuhyun clenched a fist. “Ryeowook…I think he knows. Those two have become so close.”  
  
“He only knows if Jaejoong allowed him to know,” Shindong reminded Kyuhyun.  
  
“He could have told me!” Kyuhyun snapped angrily.  
  
Shindong just laughed. “Who is to say he didn’t. He might have told you a thousand times for all you know…Jaejoong would have just erased your memory.”  
  
“It still…it still isn’t right. We all deserved to know…Changmin especially. It was wrong,” Kyuhyun insisted.  
  
“You know what’s wrong? I am about to be handed off to that bastard…you can’t even imagine what he is like. I will be lucky if I just end up as food for Pookie,” Shindong said with real fear in his voice.  
  
“Pookie?”  
  
Shindong cringed when Kyuhyun repeated the name. “His dog.”  
  
“He eats people?”  
  
“Only the ones that ZhouMi imagines have betrayed or wronged him. ZhouMi has them cut up and cooked, and then he feeds them to Pookie as a snack.  
  
“That’s disgusting…and sick.”  
  
“And that fate is preferable to what is going to happen to Changmin.”  
  
“You mean the pain of dying from that wound,” Kyuhyun asked, knowing it wasn’t what Shindong had met.  
  
Shindong shook his head softly, and said in a voice full of regret, “If he dies from that wound before ZhouMi can get a hold of him…that would be for the best. ZhouMi wants what he wants, and Changmin isn’t the type to give anything to him willingly. I mean, ZhouMi used to torture Jaejoong in every way but one, but Changmin will not be so lucky.”  
  
“In what way did ZhouMi not torture Jaejoong?” Kyuhyun asked in dread.  
  
“ZhouMi never raped Jaejoong, and he never had others rape him. He had promised the person that handed Jaejoong over to him…never to abuse him sexually. ZhouMi used to get so frustrated…he’s really sick, and he took it out on a lot of people. I used to trade with him…I’ve been on that ship. I have seen what he’s capable of,” Shindong answered, closing his eyes, trying to push those memories far away.  
  
Kyuhyun looked down at Changmin and ran a hand through his hair. “Changmin has never been hurt like that…he isn’t even interested in consensual sex.”  
  
“No, I didn’t think he was,” Shindong said sadly, all his contempt gone. “It’s too bad you can’t kill us both now; it would be a far better fate than the one that awaits us.”


	3. Chapter 3

Kangin sat on the bottom bunk of the bed and watched Yunho talking to Yong. How Yunho managed to stay so patient with the mouthy brat, Kangin had no clue. Kangin would have liked to reach through the bars and strangle Yong’s scrawny, little neck.  
  
“Oh, it’s a crew of two hundred and four,” Yunho said of the Expectations, answering Yong’s prior question. He was sitting on the floor leaning up against the bars, looking as non-threatening as possible.  
  
Yong, who sat with his feet criss-crossed on the other side of the bars, asked, “How many can it hold?”  
  
“Well over eight hundred comfortably.”  
  
Yong snorted rudely. “Not many people willing to sign up to follow you, huh? Maybe they didn’t want to end up captured.”  
  
“We started off with a full crew, but when we got sucked into your galaxy, over three/fourths of the crew died,” Yunho explained calmly.  
  
“That’s a bummer. I guess you should have been more careful,” Yong told him, refusing to be polite. “You must be a terrible captain to let so many of your crew die.”  
  
Yunho forced himself to keep smiling. “Well, I was just a lowly commander then…it wasn’t me who got us into the mess. I’m just the one that had to clean the mess up.”  
  
“Yunho, it isn’t kind to talk ill of the dead,” Kangin spoke up, sounding offended, but really playing along with Yunho.  
  
“You can if they are fucktards who got three/fourths of their crew killed; so, you had to step up, huh?” Yong asked, more interested now.  
  
Yunho nodded his head. “Yes, I never really got the opportunity before. I mean the old captain thought it best to keep me out of the important matters.”  
  
“He was afraid of you. He knew you were a natural born leader,” Kangin added, continuing to play along.  
  
“I hate people like that. Here I am a fucking genius, and I’m usually stuck doing manual labor,” Yong informed them. “The Joong is who put me here. The fucking Queen and his ass kissers, they just keep holding me down.”  
  
“You can’t hide anything from a Joong…they know who has it and who doesn’t. The Joong isn’t going to put a dumbass in charge of something this important…because the Joong knows when I get back on my ship, I am going to hunt them down,” Yunho said, feeding the boys ego and rebellious streak at the same time.  
  
“Really?” Yong asked, perking up. “Won’t it be hard?”  
  
“Are you kidding me? The ships in this galaxy are prehistoric at best, compared to the Expectations. They are lucky if they can manage warp one…the Expectations can go warp nine without breaking a sweat,” Yunho said dismissively.  
  
“Warp nine, that’s fucking unbel-” a loud alarm sounding interrupted Yong as he quickly stood up! “See you later, losers!”  
  
Yunho climbed to his feet and watched as Yong hurried off. “Don’t you find it odd that a Joong put him in charge of us?”  
  
“He’s a smart ass,” Kangin told Yunho, still sitting on the bunk bed. “I wouldn’t put him in charge of cleaning the toilet. He also hates ZhouMi.”  
  
“Exactly,” Yunho said, pacing the cell. “The Joong had to know that. What the hell is going on here?”  
  
Kangin watched Yunho pace back and forth. “You know if you convince him to release us…we are going to have to take him with us.”  
  
“Then we will just have to take him with us. I still don’t know why Jaejoong is ignoring me. I don’t know where Changmin, Kyuhyun, and Shindong are. I can’t be stuck in here.”  
  
“I know you are worried.”  
  
“Worried is an understatement. I need to get out of this jail cell and find my people,” Yunho said, full of frustration at his inability to do anything.  
  
“You are going to have to wait three weeks for that,” an unfamiliar voice said from the other side of the jail cell.  
  
Yunho and Kangin turned and stared at a tall, stiff-looking man.  
  
Kangin got up and walked over to Yunho.  
  
Yunho cut right to the point, “Who are you?”  
  
“My name is Seung-hyun.”  
  
“And why are you here?”  
  
“I am here on the behalf of my Lord…my Lord ZhouMi,” Seung-hyun explained as if saying ZhouMi’s name gave him pleasure.  
  
Yunho felt himself tense up, but he was able to keep it from showing. “I thought your Lord ZhouMi had decided to release us.”  
  
“He has, but he wanted to enlighten you on few things first.”  
  
“And that is?”  
  
“My Lord ZhouMi is quite gracious and kind to spare any information for you…considering how you upset him,” Seung-hyun explained in that same twisted tone of voice.  
  
Yunho hid his disgust and asked, “How did I upset him?”  
  
“He was very upset when you stole Jaejoong from him. Very upset,” Seung-hyun informed Yunho.  
  
“I did not steal Jaejoong. I saved him from Zusaders that were torturing him,” Yunho explained, correcting the other man. “My people don’t turn their back on that sort of thing. We call it inhuman.”  
  
Seung-hyun eyes narrowed. “The Zusaders were perhaps too harsh and ill-mannered, and most unfortunately for them, they were also thieves.”  
  
“Are you trying to say they stole Jaejoong? That’s not what Jaejoong told me,” Yunho told Seung-hyun, fighting to keep his tone neutral.  
  
“No, they didn’t steal Jaejoong; they stole a precious necklace that he was wearing. It was most unfortunate, and Lord ZhouMi wasn’t happy. After recovering the necklace we feasted on pork for days,” Seung-hyun explained with a malevolent grin.  
  
“You ate them…because they stole a necklace?” Kangin asked in disbelief. Kangin then nudged Yunho and groused, “Remind me not to eat anything in this galaxy without asking what it is first.”  
  
Seung-hyun ignored Kangin and continued, “It was a very precious necklace made especially for Joongs.”  
  
“What do you want?” Yunho asked, fighting to remain calm. There was something about the man’s visit that made him edgy.  
  
Seung-hyun turned away from Yunho and looked at the wall behind him. “I don’t want anything from you. My Lord, on the other hand, would like to make you aware of some things.”  
  
**********  
  
“Jaejoong.”  
  
The sound of his name being called made Jaejoong sit up in bed; he had been curled up in bed, crying for the past couple of hours. Jaejoong turned toward the voice, and his face froze. “Hyun Joong,” Jaejoong yelled as he jumped up from the bed and ran toward the old, familiar friend.  
  
In his excitement, Jaejoong forgot about the force field that kept him locked in the room, and he flung himself into it accidently. It instantly shocked him, sending him flying back to the floor.  
  
“Jaejoong, be careful,” Hyun Joong exclaimed, taking in his old friend’s appearance.  
  
“What are you doing here?” Jaejoong asked as he looked up at his old friend from the floor. “You have to get me out of here.”  
  
Hyun Joong took in the distraught appearance of the other Joong; his tear-stained face, the bags under his eyes, and then quickly looked away from his old friend, who he had not seen in many years. Not since they were young boys on the planet Joong. “I can’t do that, Jaejoong.”  
  
Jaejoong remained on the floor looking up at his old friend. “I don’t understand…they are holding me prisoner. They have Yunho. Yunho is my bondmate…and he’s hurt. I have to get to him.”  
  
Still avoiding Jaejoong’s eyes, the other man swallowed nervously. “He’s fine.”  
  
“I need to see him…I can’t sense him. It’s killing me not to sense him. Make them take this force field down and get this cursed necklace off of me,” Jaejoong begged.  
  
Hyun Joong lifted his gaze from the floor to look at his panic-stricken friend. “I can’t do that.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because I…I just can’t.”  
  
Jaejoong rose to his feet, closely examining Hyun Joong for the first time. The blonde hair and the blue eyes…that signified an unbound Joong were gone, “You are bonded now?”  
  
Hyun Joong nodded his head and clarified, “For over seven years now.”  
  
“And where is your mate?” Jaejoong asked as chill ran down his spine.  
  
Hyun Joong reached back and squeezed the back of his neck, hating himself more than he thought possible. “ZhouMi has her….he has another one of the necklaces, and he is wearing it…so I can’t read him. He has made sure her whereabouts are far out of my telepathic reach.”  
  
“You let him blackmail you!” Jaejoong cried out bitterly, knowing instantly what the other man had done. “You betrayed me!”  
  
“I didn’t let him! He was going to kill us. I didn’t wake up one morning and plan this. I was blackmailed.”  
  
“What did he want you to do?” Jaejoong asked, closing his eyes, already knowing what a man like ZhouMi would have wanted.  
  
“He wanted you and your mate. I am sorry Jaejoong, but I really didn’t have choice.”  
  
Jaejoong’s whole face contorted in anger as he screamed at the other Joong. “I am so sick of people making horrible decisions, and then saying they didn’t have a choice. You are killing me and my mate so you and yours can live! That was your choice!”  
  
Hyun Joong took a step backwards, away from the other man’s anger. “That’s not true.”  
  
“The hell it isn’t,” Jaejoong spit out at him as he reached up and grabbed the necklace around his neck. “People like you were the reason these necklaces were made in the first place!”  
  
“You aren’t going to die, and neither is your mate,” Hyun Joong explained.  
  
Jaejoong gave the other man a look of pure disdain. “If he doesn’t kill us, we will wish we were dead.”  
  
“In three weeks, you will be released and allowed to return to your mate’s ship.”  
  
“What? ZhouMi is going to release us? He would never release us…especially me. He will kill me…by killing Yunho in the cruelest way possible, and by making me watch him as he does it. He would then put my dead body on display for all to see…he would never release me,” Jaejoong told the other man with certainty.  
  
“Not if he got a better deal.”  
  
“A better deal?”  
  
“Yes, I was able to offer him something else…something he wants more than revenge,” Hyun Joong explained. “Something he wants more than anything.”  
  
Jaejoong pondered the other man’s words, and his face lit up with understanding. “You gave him another Joong?” A Joong that isn’t bonded?"  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Oh, that poor soul,” Jaejoong whispered as he leaned against the wall of his cell. “I hope he just gives in fast, and doesn’t try to fight ZhouMi.”  
  
“That is my upmost hope also. That he gives in quickly, and the bond is established. Once the bond is in place, ZhouMi will not want to hurt him….he will be safe,” Hyun Joong explained.  
  
Jaejoong shook his head. “But to live a life with that man…to be witness to all his atrocities, I feel for the poor soul you condemned to that life.”  
  
“It was the better of the two choices. As long as you and your mate are alive, there is hope for that poor soul,” Hyun Joong added, sadly. “You have a great technology on your side.”  
  
“That’s nice of you to put it off on me and Yunho…to make us right your wrongs. Although if I know my Yunho, and I do…he would never allow…” Jaejoong stopped, suddenly as a horrible thought crossed his mind. “Who was the Joong that you gave to ZhouMi?”  
  
“It’s a half Joong.”  
  
Jaejoong stared at the other man, unable to hide his growing fear. “There is no such thing…as half Joongs. They are merely the stuff of legends.”  
  
“That’s what I always thought…’til I met your Changmin.”  
  
“Oh, my God…Oh, my God,” Jaejoong screamed, terrified, as a fear far greater than any he had ever known took root in him. Jaejoong’s legs gave out from underneath him, and he fell to the floor. “Oh, my God….tell me you didn’t.”  
  
“Jaejoong,” Hyun Joong whispered painfully as he watched as Jaejoong realized the full extent of what he had done.  
  
“Oh, My God,” Jaejoong repeated as he sat on the floor, rocking back and forth. “He doesn’t even know he’s a Joong. Yunho will never forgive me. Changmin doesn’t have any Joong abilities…you gave him to ZhouMi. Do you know what ZhouMi will do to him? Have you any idea? Changmin’s so introverted…he isn’t capable of handling it. It will destroy him.”  
  
The other man wrung his hands together. “There is a chance he will not make it into ZhouMi’s hands.”  
  
Jaejoong looked up at the other man with tears flowing down his cheeks. “What do you mean?”  
  
“Jaejoong, are you sure he doesn’t have any abilities?”  
  
“He has some slight telepathy and mental shielding. It’s requires physical contact to alter his memories. He has the parent-child bond with Yunho…but he isn’t even aware of it,” Jaejoong explained, covering his mouth as another sob escaped him.  
  
“So he isn’t capable of healing himself?”  
  
Jaejoong climbed to his feet, his horror growing. “Why do you ask that? Why would you ask me that?”  
  
“When we captured Changmin…he resisted my mind control, and one ZhouMi’s men shot him. The weapon they used is fatal to humans…to anybody but a Joong,” Hyun Joong explained, staring at his feet, unable to look his old friend in the eye.  
  
“Fatal to humans…he’s human…he’s never healed himself.”  
  
Hyun Joong forced himself to look up and meet Jaejoong’s eyes. “Is it not possible that his Joong abilities are just suppressed? You sent him back in time, perhaps you suppressed his abilities. The fatal wound could trigger them into action. He probably never had to heal himself before.”  
  
Jaejoong shook his head. “When I see Changmin….all I see is Yunho’s son, there isn’t anything of me in him. At first I thought I had suppressed his Joong abilities, but the more time I spent with him…I don’t think he ever had any.”  
  
“You said he had some telepathy, and strong shields,” Hyun Joong reminded his friend.  
  
“That is nothing! Some humans are capable of that on their own!”  
  
“I told ZhouMi I couldn’t be sure of his abilities, and he still made the deal. The pain it would cause you…was what sealed the deal,” Hyun Joong confessed.  
  
The grief that had been suffocating Jaejoong gave way to a fierce, protective anger. “So let me clarify what you have done. You gave my son…who doesn’t even know he is my son, to a monster. My son has what is mostly likely a fatal wound….that you allowed to happen, as you stood by and watched and did nothing!”  
  
Hyun Joong flinched as Jaejoong’s words assaulted him. “Please, don’t.”  
  
Jaejoong continued his tone colder, “If my son manages to live by some miracle…then…then…he will be the plaything to that monster! Changmin, who loves calculations, science, solving puzzles, food, and his father…he knows nothing about filth or maltreatment. He was given to that cruel monster, so you and your mate could live!”  
  
Hyun Joong stared at the floor, refusing to meet Jaejoong’s eyes. “Yes,” he whispered.  
  
Jaejoong stepped closer to the force field, and demanded of his old friend, “Look at me.”  
  
Hyun Joong lifted his chin and met the other man’s gaze.  
  
“I am going to kill you. I will get out of here, and this necklace will be removed, and then I am going to find you, and I’m going to kill you,” Jaejoong vowed.  
  
Hyun Joong took a step away from the force field and told Jaejoong, “You might not know this now, but I’m not your enemy.”  
  
Jaejoong wiped the tears from his face and shouted, “You sure as hell aren’t my friend. There is no place where you can hide that I won’t find you. I will make sure that you can never go home. I will find you, and I am going to kill you.”  
  
Hyun Joong tensed, knowing that Jaejoong was not making empty threats. “I don’t think your mate would approve of your…vengeances.”  
  
“No, he wouldn’t…but he doesn’t have to know. I will kill you, and spare Yunho from the burden of knowing. But I will know! I will know that you paid for what you did to Changmin…and it will warm my heart.”  
  
Hyun Joong took another step away from the force field, he was fearful that the necklace would shatter under the weight of Jaejoong’s anger and sadness. “But he already knows.”  
  
Jaejoong’s anger vanished and was replaced with worry. “What does he know?”  
  
“Your mate knows everything. He knows that Changmin is your son. He’s very upset right now. He can’t get over the fact that you have been lying to him since the beginning…your Yunho isn’t a big fan of lying is he?”  
  
Jaejoong covered his mouth with his hand and whispered, “You told Yunho?”  
  
“No,” Hyun Joong answered, shaking his head. “You told him. Everything you’ve said since I arrived has been shown to him. You see that was ZhouMi’s one stipulation. Just having Changmin wasn’t enough…he wanted to make sure your poor clueless mate finally knew the truth.”  
  
“He isn’t clueless! I did this to protect Changmin! You know the dangers that are associated with time travel! I did it to protect Changmin!”  
  
Hyun Joong continued to shake his head. “Your Yunho doesn’t see it that way…maybe in three weeks time, you can think of a good enough excuse for lying to him, but it’s doubtful,” Hyun Joong told him. “I guess once the necklace is off…you can make him believe whatever you want. Maybe you can just make him forget the son he has lost.”  
  
“No…no…no…I just wanted to protect Changmin!”  
  
“Well, that didn’t work out too well for you, did it?” Hyun Joong told Jaejoong and then touched the controls to the force field, disabling sound from passing though it. He gave his old friend once last glance before walking away.  
  
*********************  
  
“Yunho,” Kangin said gently as he walked up to the man and laid a gentle hand on his arm.  
  
Yunho did not acknowledge his old friend; instead, his eyes were glued to the screen on the wall outside of the cell where Jaejoong and Hyun Joong’s conversation had been showed to him.  
  
Seung-hyun, who had stayed to watch Yunho’s response, offered, “It would be best if after you spend your three weeks here, you forget about your son and Lord ZhouMi. A man with scruples will never easily defeat one with none.”  
  
Kangin grabbed the bars of the jail. “Oh, we will be coming for you, you ugly fuck-”  
  
“Kangin, stop,” Yunho ordered coldly. “If Changmin doesn’t die…then he will be bound to ZhouMi, and he will be lost to us. Their lives will be tied together. To harm one of them…would be to harm both of them. I could never harm Changmin.”  
  
Kangin looked at Yunho, appalled. “You can’t give up on Changmin!’  
  
“Yunho knows the power of the bond,” the voice of Hyun Joong said as he approached them. “He knows there is no cure once it seeps into you. It consumes you. Makes you stronger, but also makes you completely dependent on it.”  
  
Yunho turned away from the screen for the first time and stared at the Joong. “Yes, I know the power. The power to be manipulated, controlled, and played with like a toy.”  
  
“Do you regret your bond?” Hyun Joong asked, studying Yunho intently. “I have never known anybody to regret it.”  
  
Seung-Hyun looked at Hyun Joong, confused. “Can’t you read his mind? Why ask these questions.”  
  
“Yunho is not an average human…his mind is highly resistant to mind control,” Hyun Joong explained.  
  
Yunho started laughing. “You flatter me, but you are wrong. I have been controlled by Jaejoong’s lies since the day I met him. He has no problems handling me…stupid, clueless Yunho.”  
  
“Do you regret the bond?” Hyun Joong repeated. “Jaejoong is laid raw without the feel of it, but you do not seem so weak.”  
  
Yunho looked Hyun Joong straight in the eyes and said, “Yes, I do. I regret it. I regret being at his mercy. I don’t regret Changmin, though. I just regret that his other parent is a liar, who got us in this mess.”  
  
Hyun Joong eyes remained locked with Yunho’s, and he said, “Regret is a terrible thing…a terrible burden to carry.”  
  
“Enough of this, we must go pick up our master’s prize,” Seung-hyun reminded Hyun Joong. “He will be growing impatient.”  
  
Hyun Joong, who was still studying Yunho closely, responded, “He isn’t my master, and I will let you pick up Changmin. I have no desire to return to that planet twice in one week.”  
  
“Remember, your mate will not be released until Changmin is in the master’s hands,” Seung-hyun reminded the Joong.  
  
Hyun Joong’s eyes were still glued on Yunho as he answered, “That is something that rarely slips my mind.”  
  
“We will take our leave of you now,” Seung-hyun informed the Starship Captain and Kangin. Seung-hyun knew his Lord would be well pleased that Jaejoong had lost the trust of the one he loved. Although Seung-hyun doubted that Jaejoong would allow his mate to think such thoughts for long, Jaejoong would always know how the captain really felt.  
  
Kangin watched as the Joong and Seung-hyun walked away. “Yunho, what you said…did you mean it?”  
  
“Does it matter?”  
  
“I guess not, but what are we going to do?”  
  
Yunho’s eyes hardened. “We are going to get the hell out of here.”  
  
  
************  
  
  
It had been twenty-four hours since the captain had beamed down to Trysor and disappeared, and they had discovered nothing. Yoochun knew their chances of finding the captain alive decreased every hour he was away. The ships scanners and the away teams had found nothing, and Yoochun fought to keep himself calm, and not to give into the panic.  
  
Yoochun sat in Yunho’s chair on the bridge, feeling absolutely helpless, a feeling he despised. Yunho was his oldest friend, and he couldn’t imagine never seeing the other man again. The ship needed Yunho…he needed Yunho.  
  
“Commander, I need to talk to you alone,” Dr. Cho said as he entered the bridge.  
  
Yoochun looked at the man who was now standing in front of him. “Did you find out something with your test? Were the Trysorions lying?”  
  
“I need to speak with you privately.”  
  
Yoochun got up from the chair and heading toward the Captain’s Ready Room with every person on the bridge watching him. Dr. Cho followed, not sparing a look for anyone.  
  
“Doctor, what is it?” Commander Yoochun asked as the doors shut behind them.  
  
“The people of Trysor have had their memories tampered with.”  
  
Yoochun sat down slowly in the chair behind the captain’s desk. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind at once. “How?”  
  
“It was done by a Joong.”  
  
“A Joong,” Yoochun repeated, suddenly suspicious of the doctor. “So, tell me, are you familiar with what Joong memory tampering looks like?”  
  
Ryeowook sighed guiltily and decided the moment of truth had arrived. “Yes, I am. It is a very subtle pattern, but I’ve been studying it in members of our crew.”  
  
Yoochun took in Dr. Cho’s words. “Jaejoong was manipulating the minds of our crew, and you were aware of it?”  
  
“Yes, not to a great extent…Yunho and Changmin’s minds mostly,” Dr. Cho admitted as he sank down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk.  
  
Commander Yoochun’s expression hardened. “Yunho’s mind…our captain’s mind was being manipulated, and you said nothing? That is the highest form of treason!”  
  
“Well, you can arrest me later,” Ryeowook snapped at the commander.  
  
“I might!” Commander Yoochun snapped back at him. “Yunho trusted you with his life. You were his doctor, and you betrayed him.”  
  
“I didn’t!”  
  
“You allowed Jaejoong to manipulate and control him…what would you call it?”  
  
“It wasn’t like that,” Ryeowook tried to explain.  
  
“Then what was it like?”  
  
Ryeowook inhaled a deep breath and exhaled and then answered, “Changmin is Jaejoong’s son.”  
  
Yoochun’s mouth fell open, shocked. “Oh…” Yoochun trailed off.  
  
“Jaejoong was convinced if the truth got out, then time would somehow be affected, and it would lead to disastrous results. Every time anybody figured out their connection…he would alter their memories. He didn’t want anybody knowing.”  
  
Commander Yoochun’s sharp eyes studied the doctor and then pointed out, “That’s not entirely true, though, is it? He apparently left your memories intact?”  
  
Ryeowook clasped his hands together in front of him. “I figured it out quickly, and he only let me keep my memories because I promised not to tell anybody. I thought my knowing might come in useful someday. I kept my word…’til today.”  
  
Yoochun leaned back in the chair, not saying anything for awhile. He just looked at the doctor. Yoochun wondered if he would have done anything differently. If Ryeowook would have told anyone…then Jaejoong would have easily corrected the situation without anybody being the wiser. For months they had accepted Jaejoong on to the ship, and it was easy to forget that he was an alien…a very powerful alien.  
  
“It wasn’t Jaejoong who altered the memories on Trysor. The Trysorion President’s mind was altered long before the captain and Jaejoong beamed down…it was another Joong.”  
  
“You are sure?”  
  
“Yes, I am sure,” Dr. Cho insisted. “Jaejoong might manipulate them to prevent them from finding out the truth about Changmin, because he thinks he is protecting Changmin, but he wouldn’t do this. He is completely loyal to the captain…their lives are bound together. He loves him absolutely.”  
  
Yoochun tapped his fingers on the top of the desk, and agreed, “I didn’t think he would. It’s obvious how much he loves Yunho…that can’t be faked.”  
  
“No, it can’t be.”  
  
“But now, the situation is even worse,” Yoochun told him. “There is rogue Joong on the loose, and he took control of the Trysorion officials, so he could get his hands on...he was after the captain and Jaejoong.”  
  
“Why would he want the captain and Jaejoong?”  
  
Yoochun’s intelligent mind went to work. “Maybe he’s working for somebody else. He was probably controlling Kyuhyun when he called for the captain.”  
  
“Who could he be working for?”  
  
“I don’t have any proof, but my gut tells me it is the Warlord ZhouMi. I mean, he put a ransom out on Shindong. A man like that…he would want his revenge. He wouldn’t take kindly to Jaejoong leaving him and bonding with another,” Yoochun said, explaining his theory.  
  
“No, but where are the others then?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Yoochun said, standing up. “But we have to start back-tracking every ship that has visited Trysor in the last week that has connections to the warlord.”  
  
Ryeowook stood up also. “Are you going to tell everybody…about Changmin and Jaejoong’s connection?”  
  
Yoochun nodded his head. “Yes, this is not the time for secrets.”  
  
*************  
  
It had been hours since the box they were in had been unloaded off the ship. Kyuhyun could hear horses, so he surmised that they were in a barn. Shindong had finally fallen asleep; exhausted from the constant turmoil his soul was in at the thought of being handed over to ZhouMi.  
  
Kyuhyun remained awake, with Changmin’s head in his lap. Kyuhyun gently ran his hands through his friend’s hair. Changmin had not awaken or stirred since earlier, and Kyuhyun wondered if he ever would again. The low murmur of voices outside the box did nothing to calm Kyuhyun’s worries.  
  
An older, gruff voice could be heard saying, “When will ZhouMi’s ship arrive?”  
  
“The merchant said it would be late in the night, or early in the morning,” a younger- sounding voice answered.  
  
“Well, I am not going to be anywhere near here when he shows up,” the older voice said.  
  
“You think he will come himself?”  
  
“Who knows with him? It’s said that sometimes he just looks at somebody and orders for them to be killed…because he finds their appearance offensive.”  
  
“Then you better not be here.”  
  
“You are not exactly prince material yourself,” the older voice retorted.  
  
“I know that…that’s why I am going to go visit my sick mother for a couple days.”  
  
Kyuhyun tuned the rest of what the men were saying out as he looked down at his pale friend. “They want the fat one, and the one in blue,” Kyuhyun said aloud, the thought that never left his mind. “That’s all the merchant told them. That’s the only description they gave…not the tallest one, not the injured one….just the one in blue.”  
  
Shindong stirred from his sleep and asked, “What are you thinking?”  
  
“I’m going to take his place.”  
  
Shindong sat up quickly and stared at Kyuhyun in disbelief, and asked in an astonished voice, “Are you mad?”  
  
“Maybe.”  
  
“It won’t ever work…ZhouMi will kill you,” Shindong told the other man. “There is no need to martyr yourself…he’s going to die anyway.”  
  
“No, he isn’t, and I have to try.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Kyuhyun looked at Shindong with glazed eyes and whispered, “Changmin knows nothing of abuse. He’s so innocent. He’s so smart…that sometimes we forget that. He’s always been protected…he’s always had Yunho there protecting him.”  
  
“Well, life sucks, and things change. It’s a sad fate, but that’s no reason for you to trade places with him,” Shindong insisted. “You don’t know what you’re doing…you can’t imagine what awaits you…the cruelty.”  
  
Kyuhyun spoke softly, “I learned more about cruelty and abuse when I was child…than anybody I’ve ever met. More than you could possible imagine.”  
  
Shindong asked, “Then why subject yourself to more?”  
  
“I am already polluted…my soul is already stained. Changmin is my friend, and I will not allow him to be raped and tortured if I can stop it. I can’t…and I won’t,” Kyuhyun said with firm conviction. “I couldn’t stand by and allow that to happen…knowing I could have done something to stop it.”  
  
Shindong just slowly shook his head. “He’s dead already.”  
  
“No, he’s not. He’s dying, but he’s not lost yet. If I can buy him a day…or even an hour…I have to do that. I have to give the captain a chance to find Changmin. Jaejoong can heal his own child, can’t he?” Kyuhyun asked the other man.  
  
Shindong slowly nodded his head. “Yes, a Joong can heal their children, but ZhouMi has them?”  
  
“I know the captain, and I have faith that he will escape,” Kyuhyun said with certainty.  
  
“You people…I don’t understand you. I don’t understand how someone can sacrifice their…” Shindong trailed off, rubbing his face with his hands. “How you can sacrifice your life?”  
  
Kyuhyun smiled sadly at Shindong. “If you don’t understand…you probably never will, but there are things more important than one’s own life.”  
  
Shindong dropped his hands from his face and just stared at Kyuhyun, unable to say a word.  
  
Kyuhyun gave Shindong a soft smile and asked, “Will you help me switch clothes with him?”  
  
Shindong just nodded his head, agreeing to an act he could never imagine doing. He would never do such a selfless thing, but the men who called the Expectations home…what wouldn’t they do in the name of loyalty and friendship? He could not help but think how different his life would have been if he had come from their world.


	4. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t call him your son. He isn’t your son. You’ve never given birth to him, you’ve never held him, he’s never cried for you, you have never eased his mind, and you never loved him. He is just some stranger you met that happened to be your son from the future. He is nothing to you.”

Kangin looked down from the top bunk in the dimly lit jail cell to see Yunho laying on his back, his elbow bent, the back of his hand resting against his forehead, and his eyes wide open.  
  
“Can’t sleep without the wife?” Kangin asked from above.  
  
Yunho looked up at the man, whose head was hanging off the top bunk, looking down at him. “Since the day I met him, I have slept with him…I haven’t slept alone in six months.”  
  
“Yunho, I never knew you were so easy.”  
  
Yunho closed his eyes and added, “There were a lot of things about myself I didn’t know until I met him.”  
  
“I have to admit your love for cock really surprised me.”  
  
Yunho opened his eyes and glared up at Kangin. “You know that might actually be a lie. I mean it isn’t like he doesn’t lie. He probably took the form he wanted and said it was my preference.”  
  
Kangin slid off the top bunk. He stood beside the bed for only a second before he scooted Yunho’s legs to the side and sat down on the bottom bunk. “I don’t know…I always thought you kinda fancied Heechul.”  
  
“Don’t go there.”  
  
“And then there was Professor Lee Jun Ki.”  
  
“Stop it.”  
  
“You stuttered like a fool every time he spoke to you.”  
  
“That’s a lie!”  
  
Kangin smiled down at the captain and shook his head. “No, it isn’t. Yoochun and I used to have big laugh about it.”  
  
“Well, he did look like a woman,” Yunho said in his defense.  
  
“Better than most women,” Kangin conceded.  
  
“Yeah,” Yunho agreed. “You can go back to sleep now; you have successfully distracted me.”  
  
“Are you sure? I thought you might want to cuddle.”  
  
“Cuddle?”  
  
“Well, I thought since you are used to sleeping with someone, it might help, but I’m going to warn you…if you try any of that gay shit on me, I’m going to kick your ass. I don’t care if you are the captain or not.”  
  
“Duly noted,” Yunho answered with a laugh.  
  
“So? Are you going to scoot over?”  
  
“No, I’m not going to scoot over,” Yunho told him. “It would not help, and I’m going to rid myself of this habit.”  
  
“The habit of sleeping with your wife?”  
  
“Yes, that habit…and he is not my wife!”  
  
Kangin smirked at Yunho and told him truthfully, “Dude, he’s your baby’s momma.”  
  
Yunho shot a hand up pointing toward the top bunk, and commanded, “Get away from me now, and go back to bed.”  
  
Kangin didn’t move; instead, he said in a serious tone, “I know you are worried about Changmin. Hell, I am worried about him, too. I know you have lost faith in Jaejoong…but maybe he really did think he was protecting Changmin.”  
  
Yunho closed his eyes, and ordered again, “Just go.”  
  
“In order for us to get out of here…you are going to have to be on your best game. The guard is a brat, but he’s a clever, little shit. It isn’t going to be easy to manipulate him. If I were that Joong, and Jaejoong threatened me like that…I would make damn sure the guard responsible for him made sure he stayed put for the entire three weeks.”  
  
Yunho didn’t say anything for awhile and then added, “I am not sure what the other Joong was up too, but I don’t think everything is as it appears.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“I’m not sure. Go to bed, and I will try to get some rest, too. You are right I have to be on my best game tomorrow…and I intend to be.”  
  
Kangin got up and jumped back up to the top bunk without any argument this time.  
  
Yunho slid to his side and stared out of the jail cell to the monitor screen that still showed Jaejoong’s room. Yunho watched as Jaejoong paced the room, wiping his eyes occasionally, and looking as if his entire world was lost to him.  
  
*************  
  
Changmin awoke on a bed of hay.  
  
His body that had been consumed in pain before was numb and cold to him now. He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his head…much too slowly. Changmin’s eyes fluttered open, and he took in his surroundings. He was in a stable; beside him, a small black pony ate out of a bucket.  
  
When he attempted to move, he found that his body was dead to him. Only his eyes followed his commands. How he got here, he had no clue. His last memory was of being in a box, and of Kyuhyun and Shindong being with him. The Warlord ZhouMi had laid a trap for Yunho and Jaejoong.  
  
“Why, Miss Sulli, you are up awfully early this lovely morning,” a gruff, older voice said from outside the stall that Changmin was lying in.  
  
“Yes, Albert I am,” a soft, young feminine voice replied.  
  
Changmin listened as the one named Albert offered, “Would you like me to saddle up a horse for you?”  
  
“No, Albert…I must admit it was curiosity that brought me down here so early. I overheard the master saying he was keeping something for Lord ZhouMi.”  
  
“Not, anymore. Lord ZhouMi’s people were here during the night and picked up two of the three men we were keeping.”  
  
“How terrible…I feel sorry for those poor men.”  
  
“Me too, Miss Sulli, but we have the third one here with us…for however long that will be.”  
  
“A third one?”  
  
“Yeah, he’s barely hanging on to life. They used a nasty weapon on him. He isn’t long for this world.”  
  
“Can I see him?”  
  
“I don’t see why not; follow me. I have him rooming with Smokey.”  
  
“Thank you, maybe I can-” the girl stopped talking abruptly as she took in the sight of the man in the stables.  
  
“Miss Sulli, are you okay?” Albert asked worried as he watched the young girl pale more than her normal color as she took in the sight of the man. “Are you going to faint?” Albert asked as he gently reached out and held her arm.  
  
“I…I…am fine,” Sulli barely managed to get out as she broke free of the hand that was now slowly rubbing her arm.  
  
Changmin’s eyes took in her appearance, and his eyes widened in recognition as he looked upon the Ambassador’s daughter. She was dressed in a pink dress, her long, black silky hair was tied in pigtails, and her left cheek was bruised. He watched as she moved closer to him and dropped to her knees beside him. “Oh, what has happened to you?” Sulli exclaimed as she took Changmin’s hand and gripped it tightly.  
  
“Nothing good, Miss Sulli…nothing good,” Albert answered.  
  
Sulli reached her free hand up to push Changmin’s hair back off his forehead. “Where is he injured?”  
  
Albert bent down and pulled Changmin’s uniform up to show a rotting, black wound on his stomach that had purulent drainage oozing from it. “If he were an animal, I would put him out of his misery.”  
  
“Oh, I am so sorry,” Sulli cried as she pulled Changmin’s hand up to her mouth and kissed it.  
  
Changmin’s eyes caught sight of the uniform he was wearing…a red uniform, not his blue one. He looked up at Sulli with a thousand questions, but he was unable to ask any as he drifted back into unconscious.  
  
**********  
  
Sungmin stood outside Siwon’s door, trying to find the courage to enter. Two days had passed now, and they had been unable to find any sign of their missing captain and crew. Sungmin was on edge, and he found himself desperately in the need of the other man’s company. Sungmin had found that his mind was often consumed with the tall prince…since their night spent together, when he had been in the body of a woman.  
  
Since that night, the prince had showed no sexual interest in Sungmin at all. Their relationship had continued on as if the night had never happened, except for some slight awkwardness on Sungmin’s part.  
  
Sungmin gently tapped on the door. The door opened, and Sungmin entered the room tentatively. Siwon, who was sitting at a small desk in the room, turned to smile at the man who had entered his room.  
  
“Lieutenant, how are you this evening?” Siwon asked politely, but carefully.  
  
Sungmin, who had sex on his mind, lied, “Just checking to make sure everything is okay.”  
  
Siwon gave Sungmin an odd look and replied, “Everything is fine. I’m just studying.”  
  
“You are still taking courses with Ensign Choi?” Sungmin asked as he sat down on the bed…trying his best not to mentally replay the last time he had been on the bed in his head.  
  
“Yes, as a prince I was trained in diplomacy, and I would be lying if I didn’t admit to a desire to continue in that field.”  
  
“You want to leave security?” Sungmin asked, cursing his obviousness; he knew his face had instantly showed his dislike of the idea.  
  
Siwon was watching him closely now, and Sungmin knew he was hiding nothing from the other man. “How should I say this…security is nice, but it’s not my preference.”  
  
Sungmin’s eyes widened, and he stood back up quickly, taking the hint. “True…it’s not everybody’s calling. I wish you luck on your studies.”  
  
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Siwon told the other man as he watched him back out of the room.  
  
Sungmin slapped his hands together nervously and stated, “I am going to go now.”  
  
Siwon nodded his head in agreement. “Goodbye, Lieutenant.”  
  
“Goodbye,” Sungmin practically yelped as he hurried from the room, the door shutting behind him.  
  
Sungmin leaned against the wall of the outside corridor, mortified. “I’m an idiot. Such an idiot,” Sungmin muttered under his breath, and then he tapped his insignia. “Commander, where are you?”  
  
Commander Yoochun’s voice answered, “In the ship’s galley.”  
  
“I will be there shortly,” Sungmin responded and hurried away from the quarters of the prince. Sungmin told himself that he was the one who thought up the terms, and Siwon was simply following them. Siwon was straight…he had told him so himself. The only reason he had consented to sex was because Sungmin was a woman at the time. Siwon wasn’t interested in him as a man…he had been attracted to the woman that Sungmin had been.  
  
As Sungmin hurried toward the galley, he reminded himself that he was basically Siwon’s boss, and it was improper for him to be lusting after one of his security personal…very wrong, not to mention humiliating. “No, more lusting, Sungmin,” he said under his breath as he entered the galley.  
  
“Why no lusting? Lusting is good,” Yoochun slurred at him as he entered the galley.  
  
Sungmin stared at the senior officer, who was sitting at the table with multiple bottles of alcohol in his hands, in disbelief. “Are you drunk?”  
  
“No,” Yoochun answered, chugging down one bottle of alcohol, before grabbing another.  
  
Sungmin hurried to the table and jerked the bottle away from the drunken commander. “You are in charge of this ship, you idiot! You can’t be intoxicated!”  
  
Yoochun pointed his finger at Sungmin and slurred, “I…I…don’t…think you should acc…accuse me of drunkenness…when you..your be..being insor…insorbinate….I for..forgot the word…insubordination or sommmmething.”  
  
“Commander, really! Do you think this is the proper time to be drunk?”  
  
“I’m not drunk. It’s synthehol,” Yoochun explained, suddenly making sense.  
  
“Oh…”  
  
“Yes, and I was enjoying the buzz….and now you have gone and killed it. You buzz killer,” Yoochun grumbled.  
  
Sungmin looked at the bottle of synthehol that imitated the affects of alcohol, but only as long as you wished it. It was entirely nonalcoholic, but nevertheless, it could be enjoyed. “Well, in that case, I need some,” Sungmin declared as he put the bottle to his mouth and gulped down a large amount of it.  
  
Yoochun watched him and asked, “Worried about Kyuhyun?”  
  
Sungmin pulled the bottle away from his mouth and answered, “I am worried about all of them.”  
  
“Aren’t you lusting him?” Yoochun asked as he watched Sungmin take another drink.  
  
Sungmin handed the bottle back to Yoochun and sat down. “Nope, not him.”  
  
“Really,” Yoochun said intrigued, leaning back in his chair. “Who is the lucky seme?”  
  
“Umm…it wasn’t exactly like that,” Sungmin admitted, embarrassed.  
  
Yoochun’s mouth fell open and said stunned, “You topped-”  
  
“No,” Sungmin said, interrupting. “I didn’t….but I was in a woman’s body at the time.”  
  
Yoochun snarled in dislike and took another big chug of the synthehol and said full of disgust, “And now you are in love with a straight man.”  
  
“I am not in love!” Sungmin denied vehemently, taking the bottle back, and swallowing down as much as he could. “I’m in lust.”  
  
“Whatever! You are incapable of separating the two! I so warned you!”  
  
Sungmin sat the bottle back down on the table. “I don’t remember you warning me…I just remember you being a huge ass!”  
  
“I was PMSing,” Yoochun tried to say seriously, but started laughing.  
  
Sungmin gave Yoochun a deadpan look and shook his head and said, “I don’t even know why I talk to you.”  
  
“So, are you going to tell me who it was?” Yoochun asked with a big grin as he grabbed the bottle and took another drink.  
  
“No.”  
  
“Hmmm…” Yoochun pondered deep in thought. “I am sure you will get all moony-eyed soon, and it will be obvious to all.”  
  
“I will not get moony-eyed!” Sungmin denied as he took the bottle away from Yoochun.  
  
Yoochun watched, and when Sungmin was busy gulping down the synthehol, he added evilly, “Well, I let Eunhyuk screw me all night.”  
  
Synthehol went everywhere as it spewed out of Sungmin’s mouth, as he tried not to choke. “Eunhyuk!”  
  
“He’s a horny bastard…just kept going and going,” Yoochun told Sungmin matter-of -factually. “Wasn’t bad at all.”  
  
“You…you…two don’t even like each other,” Sungmin said, still in shock.  
  
Yoochun shrugged. “We both like sex, though.”  
  
Sungmin grabbed the bottle and gulped down the rest of it, and asked, “This is why the bridge is so awkward?”  
  
“No,” Yoochun said, shaking his head. “Eunhyuk and I are cool with each other…it’s the fact that I tried to seduce Junsu first; that makes it awkward.”  
  
“I told you to leave Junsu alone!” Sungmin snapped.  
  
Yoochun nodded his head. “You did, but unfortunately I had already tried before you gave me the big ‘don’t taint his soul’ spill.”  
  
“So it…went bad?” Sungmin asked in dread.  
  
“Oh, yeah…it started off pretty good, but then it went really…really bad,” Yoochun confessed, wincing as he recalled the memory.  
  
“So you decided to fuck his best friend instead?”  
  
Yoochun nodded his head. “I’ve never handled rejection well.”  
  
Sungmin just shook his head at Yoochun. “You are not a nice person.”  
  
“Never claimed to be,” Yoochun agreed, standing up. “It’s time we got back to the bridge. We have five people to find.”  
  
  
*************************  
  
  
Kangin inhaled a deep breath and walked down the hallway toward where Jaejoong was being held as he had been ordered to do so, by Yunho. Kangin was not looking forward to facing the distraught Joong. It had taken Yunho a day and a half to talk Yong into releasing them, and during that whole time, the monitor screen showing Jaejoong’s cage had stayed on. Jaejoong was a wreck, and watching him had almost been painful.  
  
Yunho, who pretended not to watch his mate, was close to a wreck himself, and had forbidden any discussion of the Joong. Kangin had rarely seen Yunho this angry. It’s was like the more Yunho thought about Jaejoong, the angrier he got. Yunho valued loyalty above all things, and that the Joong had been lying all along about being Changmin’s other parent had cut Yunho to the core of his being. That Changmin was either dead or in the hands of a sadistic mad man did not help matters. Yunho was as close to the edge as Kangin had ever seen him.  
  
Yunho had finally been able to make a deal with Yong the night before, and the scruffy guard had said he would have to sleep on it before he could make his decision. Kangin had sighed in relief when Yong showed up early this morning, agreeing to the deal. Yunho had ignored Jaejoong and went straight to the exit, trying to unlock the door so they could escape.  
  
Apparently they were deep underground, and there was only one exit leading to a tunnel that led to the surface. The door leading to the tunnel was locked from the outside, and it was programmed to open in three weeks…and not a second before then. Yunho had soon discovered the door had multiple safety measures set in place to prevent it from being tampered with. After a couple hours of having absolutely no luck unlocking the door, Yunho had told Kangin to go release Jaejoong, but not to remove the necklace.  
  
Kangin groaned before stepping in front of the cage, and alerting the Joong to his presence. He could only imagine the Joong’s response when he told him that he wasn’t going to remove the necklace.  
  
The minute Kangin stepped in front of the force field, Jaejoong saw him and ran for him, barely stopping in time to prevent himself from getting shocked again. Jaejoong’s change in appearance was shocking to Kangin. It had only been a little more than two days, but the affect the necklace was having on the Joong was drastic. He had lost weight, his face was sunken in, huge bags hung under his eyes, and he looked completely exhausted. He was saying something to Kangin, but the audio was off, and Kangin couldn’t hear a word of it though the force field. Kangin debated if he should just leave it off ‘til he figured out how to disable the force field, but decided against cruelty and flipped the audio on.  
  
“Hello, Jae.”  
  
“Is Yunho alright?” Jaejoong implored immediately. “I know he was hurt, but I wasn’t able to heal him. He is he okay?”  
  
“Oh, he’s fine. He is working on our escape at the moment,” Kangin told Jaejoong as he studied the control panel for the force field, avoiding gazing at the puffy-eyed Joong.  
  
“But he was hurt.”  
  
“Just a little shoulder wound; it’s nothing. Hasn’t slowed him down a bit,” Kangin answered, trying to ease the Joong’s worries.  
  
Jaejoong gasped in relief. “I can’t feel him…at all. I think it’s making me crazy. I think I will die if somebody doesn’t take this necklace off of me. I can’t feel him.”  
  
Kangin didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.  
  
“How angry is he?” Jaejoong asked, crying. “I know he must be very angry with me. I didn’t mean to lie to him…he has to forgive me. I was trying to protect Changmin. I never wanted to lie to him. I love him so much.”  
  
Kangin looked up from the control panel and saw the Joong wiping his face with the sleeve of his uniform. “He’s really angry…but more than anything he’s scared. He’s really scared for Changmin.”  
  
Jaejoong started sobbing more and just collapsed to the floor. “I never wanted this…I never wanted this. For ZhouMi to have Changmin…I never wanted this.”  
  
“We know you didn’t…you didn’t know,” Kangin told the distraught Joong. “I am not going to be able to disable this force field. I am not sure how to do it, and I don’t want to mess it up. Yunho’s going to have to come do it. I’m sorry.”  
  
Jaejoong, who was on his knees, looked up at Kangin with his big, puffy, tearful eyes and smiled hopefully. “Please go get Yunho…I need to see him. I need him so much.”  
  
The love light shining in Jaejoong’s eyes made Kangin wince, and add reluctantly, “Ummm...it might be awhile. He’s been working on the main exit…trying get us out of here without blowing us up. They really didn’t want us getting out early.”  
  
“How long have you two been out?” Jaejoong asked surprised, realizing that his bondmate had left him locked up while they had been free.  
  
Kangin cringed and confessed, “About two hours.”  
  
Jaejoong rapidly stood up. “Two hours! You left me in here for two hours? You two have been free for the last two hours? You two have been free, and I have been stuck in here wearing this wretched necklace!”  
  
“We are in an underground bunker…it isn’t like we were going to leave you,” Kangin quickly responded, trying to ease his guilt.  
  
“Did you guys ever stop to think that if you take this stupid necklace off of me, I might be able to alert the people on the ground that we are in here?”  
  
“No, I really didn’t,” Kangin confessed honestly. “But that does make sense.” Kangin wondered if Yunho had realized that…no, he might be mad at the Joong, but he wanted to be out searching for Changmin more.  
  
“Go get Yunho, now,” Jaejoong ordered, and Kangin found himself obeying him without question.  
  
Jaejoong paced around the room, waiting for his disgruntled lover to appear. He tried to calm himself, but it was a useless attempt. The necklace blocked him from feeling the bond…from sensing Yunho. He was like addict addicted to Yunho, and the necklace preventing him from having his fix. The fact that Changmin was either dead or in the hands of ZhouMi did not make matters any better. He was an emotional mess, unable to control his emotions, as he was deprived of his lifeline…his bond with Yunho.  
  
Movement outside the force field had him spinning around quickly, and his heart leapt for joy as he saw Yunho. Yunho, who looked perfect and unharmed, and Jaejoong sighed in relief. He ran toward the edge of the force field, wanting to be as close as possible to his mate. “Yunho…” he said full of love, “Kangin and Hyun Joong told me you were alright, but I needed to see you with my own eyes.”  
  
“Yunho, I was so worried about you. I’m so sorry about Changmin…we will save him. I know we will. We will. I am going to kill ZhouMi and Hyun Joong, and you can’t stop me. They both deserve to die,” Jaejoong vowed to the other man, who wasn’t looking at him. The control panel outside of Jaejoong’s cage had all of Yunho’s attention.  
  
“I am so sorry…I know you must be mad at me, but I couldn’t tell you. Time is a very fragile thing…I couldn’t risk changing it. Joongs are taught from a very young age to respect time…since we can access the Guardians.”  
  
“I love you so much, and I am so sorry. Can you please forgive me?” Jaejoong begged.  
  
“Yunho, talk to me. I know you are upset, but please talk to me.”  
  
Yunho continued to ignore him, and Jaejoong realized Yunho had cut off the audio, so he wouldn’t have to listen to him. Jaejoong’s anger sparked to life, and he picked up a pillow off of his bed and flung it at the force field. The sound of the force field zapping the pillow caused Yunho to look up from the panel. Their eyes met for only a brief second, and Yunho glanced away quickly to continue focusing on his work.  
  
Jaejoong waited anxiously as Yunho continued to work on the control panel without ever gifting him with so much as a glance. Jaejoong knew it would not be easy. He had always known that Yunho would find out some day, and he wouldn’t be happy with him. The way Yunho had found out…Jaejoong had never imagined that he would find out in such an awful way. Yunho had been taken prisoner, separated from his ship, he was injured, his bondmate had lied to him, and his son’s life was in serious danger. Yes, this was too much even for Yunho’s forgiving nature, Jaejoong thought.  
  
After what felt like hours to Jaejoong, but in reality had only been a few minutes, the force field between them vanished. Jaejoong instantly lunged for Yunho. He wanting nothing more than to feel the other man’s embrace, but he was stopped when Yunho’s arms shot up, holding him back.  
  
“No,” was all Yunho said.  
  
Yunho’s voice was so cold and devoid of emotion, it made Jaejoong come to a dead stop. “You must know I never wanted this to happen.”  
  
“Honestly, I don’t know anything right now.”  
  
Jaejoong cursed the tears that would not stop falling. “Yunho, you must know I love you with all my heart.”  
  
Yunho lowered his arms and took a step back from Jaejoong. “I want you to be honest with me…if you can manage that.”  
  
“Yunho, don’t be like-”  
  
“Don’t tell me what to do. I realize that may be hard for you…you, who have manipulated me like a puppet since the day I met you,” Yunho accused in a voice that did not hide any of his anger or hurt.  
  
Jaejoong’s hand flew up to cover his mouth and he cried out, “That isn’t true.”  
  
“That necklace - if I take it off of you…can you really reach out to the people on the surface?” Yunho asked looking at some fixed point above Jaejoong’s head, and not at his mate.  
  
Jaejoong tried to calm his heart. He needed to know what Yunho was feeling…this cold Yunho…no, he couldn’t be responsible for this cold Yunho. “It depends on how far down we are, and if there are people directly above us.”  
  
“Why can’t you take it off?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“The necklace? Why can’t you take it off?”  
  
“There is something in the necklace that prevents any Joong from being able to remove it…if they did not put it on willingly. If I lift it up, trying to remove it…my own telepathic powers will be amplified and used against me. My brain will explode.”  
  
“I don’t understand. Why would ZhouMi willingly wear the other one?”  
  
Jaejoong sneered in hatred at the mention of ZhouMi. “The necklace was made to protect humans and other Joong from criminal or insane Joongs. If anyone puts it on willingly, then they can remove it anytime they want, but a Joong can not remove it, or use telepathy to have it removed. ZhouMi put it on so Hyun Joong would not be able to read his mind, so he could hide Hyun Joong’s mate from him. The necklace blocks any kind of empathy or telepathy.”  
  
“You can’t sense anything from me?” Yunho asked curiously, lowering his gaze to look at his mate. Yunho was taken aback by Jaejoong’s appearance. He had watched his lover on the monitor and knew the other man was distraught…but Jaejoong’s beauty was fading, and he looked like his soul was being drained away.  
  
“No, and it’s driving me crazy. Yunho, I’m losing my mind,” Jaejoong whimpered. “Will you please remove it? I miss you so much!”  
  
Yunho quickly looked down at the floor to avoid looking at Jaejoong. “But I can sense you. The telepathy is gone, but I knew you were still…still out there somewhere.”  
  
“The bond we have is still intact…I’m just blocked. I can’t feel it. Yunho, please take the necklace off of me. You’re hurt; I must heal you,” Jaejoong told him as he reached for Yunho’s left shoulder.  
  
Yunho held up his hand again, stopping Jaejoong from touching him. “I’m fine.”  
  
“No, you were hurt; I felt it…that’s how they got this cursed necklace on me.”  
  
“They used me to weaken you?”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head. “Yes, so will you please take it off of me? I can’t stand it any longer. Yunho, don’t be cruel….please take it off. It isn’t like you to be so cruel.”  
  
“I will remove it.”  
  
“Thank you,” Jaejoong told his lover as Yunho reached up with both hands and grabbed ahold of the necklace.  
  
“It’s very beautiful, isn’t it? It’s like perfect pink diamonds…so beautiful, but yet so powerful,” Yunho said as he stared at the necklace, entranced, not removing it from Jaejoong’s neck.  
  
“It’s hideous…please remove it now. It keeps me from you. Please…take it off of me. I need to feel our bond,” Jaejoong begged.  
  
Yunho looked up from the necklace to face Jaejoong with eyes that hid none of his pain or his anger. “Yes, I’ll take it off of you. We must escape here, and we are going to need your help. We have to find Changmin, and we are running out of time,” Yunho told Jaejoong as he slipped the necklace off his lover’s neck and placed it around his own.  
  
“No,” Jaejoong screamed, grabbing for the necklace, but he was too late. It was already around Yunho’s neck. “No, no, no!”  
  
Yunho grabbed Jaejoong’s hands. “Yes, Jaejoong I am going to wear it! It’s staying on me…my mind is my own right now. Do you understand me?”  
  
“No…please don’t to this…to me…to us,” Jaejoong pleaded. “Our bond…it is still blocked! Don’t you miss me?”  
  
“I miss…who I thought you were,” Yunho told him. “Everything we have ever shared could be a big lie. You can make me believe anything you want. It could all have been lies from the very beginning.”  
  
Jaejoong recoiled as if he had been slapped. “Yunho, you don’t believe that. I kept the truth about my connection to Changmin from you, and I did alter your memories when you got too close to the truth, but I did that to protect him. What we feel…that has never been a lie! Never!”  
  
Yunho shook his head releasing Jaejoong’s hands. “You never have to protect Changmin from me. He is my son, my kid brother before that, and my dearest friend…I would never hurt him.”  
  
“Not intentionally, but accidents happen. I have been taught to fear the consequences of time…since my birth. I couldn’t risk my own son by telling-”  
  
“Don’t call him that.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Don’t call him your son. He isn’t your son. You’ve never given birth to him, you’ve never held him, he’s never cried for you, you have never eased his mind, and you have never loved him. He is just some stranger you met that happened to be your son from the future. He is nothing to you,” Yunho told Jaejoong coldly.  
  
“That isn’t true,” Jaejoong denied, but the truth of Yunho’s words stung him. “I know I’m not bonded to him…like a Joong normally is with their children, but knowing he is our child is enough to make me love him. Knowing that he is a part of us…part of our love, that’s all I need to know.”  
  
“I don’t believe you,” Yunho told Jaejoong. “Nothing that I have ever seen has ever hinted that you loved or even cared for him.”  
  
“I saved his life from the vampire!” Jaejoong said in his defense. “Or did you forget that?”  
  
“I think you love me…actually I’m positive of that, and that’s why you protected Changmin,” Yunho told Jaejoong matter-of-factually, turning away from him to head down the hallway, unable to look at Jaejoong any longer.  
  
“Yunho, don’t you walk away from me,” Jaejoong complained as he hurried after Yunho, who was walking away. “I had to keep my feelings about Changmin hidden.”  
  
Yunho snorted. “You didn’t keep them hidden. You often showed your dislike and desire to flee his presence often enough, although you have gotten better lately. I will give you credit for that.”  
  
Jaejoong grabbed a hold of Yunho and forcibly swung him around ‘til they were face to face. “You don’t get to put that necklace on and walk away from me. You don’t get to be all self-righteous and pretend like everything between us has been a lie.”  
  
“Jae, I-”  
  
“Shut up and listen to me. I always knew I would pay for keeping the truth about Changmin from you. I always knew that, but still I did it, because I truly thought it would keep him safe. I know you, like nobody has ever known you before…and I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep it from him.”  
  
“Because-”  
  
“I said shut up!” Jaejoong screamed as Kangin and Yong walked up after hearing the raised voices. “I have kept things from you. But I have never treated you like a puppet! Ask yourself this, Yunho! Would we still be in your crappy commander’s quarters….if I misused my powers? Would we ever fight or disagree, if I was anything like you are accusing me of being?”  
  
Yunho kept his mouth closed as he watched Jaejoong, who was trembling in rage. “You said that you were positive of my love for you! How gracious of you! We are bonded for life! I always knew I would have to tell you the truth someday! Someday soon! Changmin will be born…it isn’t like I could hide that from you!”  
  
Yunho paled considerable and asked, “Are you preg-”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong screamed at him. “I am not pregnant, but that’s why Joong’s shift. We shift back to our hermaphroditic states so we can become pregnant. So, see, I lied to you again. I didn’t tell you that! I didn’t tell you about the Guardian either…because I knew it would bring up questions regarding Changmin, which would just mean more manipulations and lies.”  
  
“Jaejoo-”  
  
“Shut up!” Jaejoong interrupted again, still screaming, his voice almost hoarse. “From now on you get to know every thing I know. You know what Changmin’s dream is of? It is of me sending him back in time! You know why I sent him back in time? I send him back because we are dying! A Joong child is dependent on its parents. It must have one of its parents, or it will die. There are no Joong orphans…you can’t adopt a baby Joong. A baby Joong must have one of its natural parents to bond with, or it dies! I sent him back in time to you…because even as a child, your bond would be enough to keep him alive. I don’t know anything more, because it hasn’t happened yet, and his dream wasn’t exactly clear to me…but what I know, you now know. So welcome to my truth! Isn’t it wonderful! Aren’t you glad you know we are doomed?”  
  
Yunho just stared at his trembling lover, trying to take in what all had been said, not daring to say a word.  
  
“Well, aren’t you going to say anything?” Jaejoong demanded.  
  
“I don’t know what to say,” Yunho admitted, stunned by what the Joong had said to him.  
  
Jaejoong took a step closer to Yunho and looked up at him. “You wanted the truth.”  
  
“I did,” Yunho agreed, still taken aback by the tragic nature of their truth. They were doomed…Yunho pushed that thought away, he couldn’t handle it now. He would deal with that later.  
  
“I just want you…to touch me. Can you just hold me? Hug me…touch me…anything please? If I can’t feel your mind…can I please feel your touch?”  
  
Yunho exhaled a deep breath, and shook his head, wanting to say no, but instead, he reached out his arms and pulled the distressed man in for a hug. “I am still not okay with this. I am not taking the necklace off.”  
  
“Okay,” Jaejoong whispered as he clung to Yunho tightly.  
  
Yong, who had been watching them with Kangin, whacked the other man on the arm. “They are fucking nuts.”  
  
“That one nut can turn you into a brain-damaged tadpole if he gets the inclination,” Kangin reminded the scruffy guard.  
  
“Whatever, it’s the truth. I thought we were supposed to be getting out of here instead of having big dramatic reconciliations,” Yong reminded them.  
  
Yunho winced and tried to pull free of Jaejoong, but the other man remained attached to him. “Jae, we need to focus on getting out of here.”  
  
“Yunho, don’t move away,” Jaejoong whimpered not releasing his hold on Yunho.  
  
Yunho grimaced. “We have to get out of here. We have to find Changmin and the others.”  
  
Jaejoong didn’t budge. “I have already contacted the people on the surface, and they are contacting the Expectations as we speak.”  
  
“You did?” Yunho asked, amazed.  
  
“Fortunately for us this bunker was near the capitol building,” Jaejoong replied, clinging to Yunho tighter.  
  
“You see, that’s why Joongs are so popular. They are completely capable of having a mental breakdown and carrying out a rescue mission at the same time,” Yong pointed out, impressed. “That’s why everybody wants one of their own.”  
  
Kangin rolled his eyes. “Having you on the ship is going to be so much fun.”  
  
“Don’t you forget it,” Yong told him.  
  
“Jaejoong!” Yunho complained, pushing the Joong away suddenly. “I said no healing!”  
  
“Don’t be stupid, Yunho! Of course I will heal you! You are hurt,” Jaejoong snapped back at him, and he reached up and pulled Yunho’s shirt away to examine the gunshot wound to his shoulder.  
  
“No, you will not! Dr. Cho is the only one that will be healing me. I am still upset with you,” Yunho told Jaejoong as he stormed off toward the exit.  
  
Jaejoong followed after him. “You are angry at me, so you are going to make yourself suffer? Don’t be cruel!”  
  
“Cruel? I am not being cruel!”  
  
“Yes, you are. It hurts me to know you are hurting…you are doing this on purpose! To punish me!” Jaejoong shot back at Yunho.  
  
“I just want a real doctor to take care of me. I can’t expect you to heal me when I’m angry at you…it wouldn’t be right,” Yunho told him as he waited by the exit for the Expectations crew to come rescue them.  
  
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” Jaejoong screamed at his lover.  
  
Kangin, who was slowly following behind them with Yong, elbowed the younger man. “You are right, of course…they are fucking insane.”


	5. Sulli

There was a wet cloth pressed against his face when Changmin awoke for the third time since his shooting. He was unable to move, and his body was numb to the pain as his life’s energy slowly slipped away. The sound of Sulli’s voice could be heard in the near distance.  
  
“Albert, the older groundskeeper, isn’t a bad man…although he looks at me sometimes like…but never mind that. He isn’t bad; he’s just lonely. His wife died years ago. Earl is his helper, but he took a couple of days off work. He was afraid Lord ZhouMi might take a shine to him. Earl isn’t as nice as Albert, but he isn’t really bad. Not like the other men here…there are so many bad men here…especially the master. The master…Mr. Egglemen, he’s an awful man. I belong to him now, but he isn’t kind…nor is he gentle.”  
  
“When I was first brought here, I tried to run away all the time. He always caught me, though. He finally got so tired of me running away that he broke my leg. He used a hammer, and he smashed it over and over. He didn’t let me see a doctor…and now it just drags behind me. That’s why I like riding horses. When I am on a horse, I forget about my leg. I forget lots of things, and I think I’m free and not the slave of a bad man. Horses are always good, it seems, on every world. I like animals. I used to have a cat. His name was Aslan…I wonder who is taking care of Aslan now,” Sulli rambled on and on as she wiped Changmin’s face with a damp cloth.  
  
Changmin had no strength to speak or to even open his eyes, so he just listened to her.  
  
“How I wish we had never been invited to that wedding. I thought it was going to be the grandest thing I’d ever seen, and instead it led to the end of my world. The end of the good world, and now we are stuck in this awful world.”  
  
“Albert said they only wanted the fat one and the one in blue…that’s why they left you. I thought you were in blue, though. I thought you had the same colors as SooYoung…didn’t you? She always wore blue…blue the color of science and all things smart. I wonder where she is now. I hope she found a better world than me. She would probably escape though; she is so smart and brave. She’s my favorite cousin…not that I don’t love Minho. They are both so smart, but SooYoung and I are both girls. We could tell each other our secrets…even if she was older. She never treated me like a kid.”  
  
The one in blue…they wanted the one in blue; this thought raced and collided in Changmin’s brain. Kyuhyun had taken his place? Changmin remembered the groundskeeper telling Sulli that ZhouMi had taken them…Kyuhyun had given himself to ZhouMi in his place. Why? Changmin knew his life was coming to an end…why would Kyuhyun make such an illogical sacrifice?  
  
“Changmin, you are trembling. Your fever is very high. I wish we could get you a doctor, but the master won’t allow it. I will get you Smokey’s blanket,” Sulli said as she got up and hobbled over to the black pony that shared his stall with Changmin.  
  
“Smokey is a good pony, Changmin. He wouldn’t step on you. I feed him fruit sometimes, and he’s always so careful not to bite me. He won’t mind sharing his blanket with you,” Sulli assured Changmin as she moved back to the injured man and placed the blanket over the top of him. “Your legs are so long, Changmin…you are much too tall for just one blanket, so I am going to put hay over your legs. The hay will help to keep you warm.”  
  
As Sulli went to work covering Changmin’s legs up with hay, she continued to ramble on, “Did the Expectations survive, Changmin? I don’t dare hope it did. Hope is too cruel. I won’t hope, but wouldn’t it be very nice if it survived? I like the thought of Minho still being on the Expectations alive and well. I wish SooYoung was there, too.”  
  
“My parents…the great ambassadors, who had helped broker the peace of those two worlds…they were invited to the wedding as thanks. I got to go because I was their daughter, and I wanted SooYoung to come, too. She liked science much more than weddings, but she went because I asked. I wish I had not asked…she could be with Minho now. My really smart cousins…Changmin, can I tell you a secret? You know why I know so much about you? It’s because SooYoung always talked about you. She said you were like a Vulcan, but much more handsome. She showed me pictures of you. Did you know she liked you? No, of course not…she would never have told you. She thought you were the smartest person in the universe.”  
  
Sulli finished covering Changmin up with hay. “They said you should be dead by now, but they don’t know how strong the people of Earth are. They don’t know because all the good people here are weak. There isn’t anybody like my…there aren’t any peacekeepers here,” Sulli told him. “Changmin, did you know my parents died? When I woke up they were already gone…Dr. Cho couldn’t save them. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to them being dead. I miss them so much. How can they be gone forever?”  
  
“Changmin, I wish you didn’t have to die…you are all that is left of Earth. I miss Earth so much. I want to go home,” Sulli cried out in anguish. Changmin listened as her sobs grew louder, and although he knew it was illogical to hope, and he understood why she was afraid of hope…he still couldn’t help hoping that she would someday find her way home.  
  
****************  
  
The instant Kangin, Jaejoong, Yong, and Yunho materialized in the transporter room with the rescue team, Yunho was off the transporter platform and heading for the door.  
  
“Welcome back, Captain,” Donghae greeted the rushed captain. After not getting the normal greeting in return, Donghae shared a concerned look with Commander Yoochun, who had also been waiting for the captain to return.  
  
Yunho quickly exited the room, and the others in the room hurried after him. “I want all senior officers and my bridge officers in the conference room now.”  
  
Yoochun shot Jaejoong a suspicious look and quickly moved ahead of the others to catch up with the captain. “Yunho,” Yoochun said, using his friend’s name and not his rank. “There are some things I need to tell you while I still can.”  
  
“What?” Yunho asked as he came to dead stop when he reached the lift.  
  
“It’s about Changmin and Jaejoong,” Yoochun told his friend as he shot a quick glance back at the others quickly approaching.  
  
Yunho stepped onto the lift. “Jaejoong is Changmin’s other parent. Yes, I know.”  
  
“You do?” Yoochun replied, surprised, as he joined Yunho in the lift.  
  
Yunho frowned as the others got into the lift with them. “I didn’t find out till it was too late, but I know now.”  
  
“It isn’t too late,” Jaejoong said firmly, standing on the opposite side of the lift. Jaejoong had managed to control his emotions to an extent. He vowed he would not cry in front of Yunho’s crew.  
  
“You better hope it isn’t,” Yunho said under his breath as the lift took off with them.  
  
Yoochun noticed the tension between the two lovers, and pointed at the necklace on Yunho’s neck. “Nice jewelry…didn’t know you were the type, though.”  
  
“Oh, I may never take this off. It’s quite useful,” Yunho told Yoochun, but he was glaring at Jaejoong.  
  
Jaejoong did not wilt under that glare; instead, he glared back disapprovingly and told Yunho as the lift stopped, “You need to be in sickbay having your wound looked at. Do I need to remind you that you’ve been shot?”  
  
Yunho stepped off the lift onto the bridge and snapped back at Jaejoong, “No, you do not need to remind me that I’ve been shot. I am well aware of that fact.”  
  
“Shot?” Sungmin, who greeted them when they arrived on the bridge, repeated.  
  
“It’s nothing,” Yunho told him. “I want all senior and my bridge officers in the conference room now.”  
  
Jaejoong followed Yunho into the conference room, undaunted. “I know you are angry with me, but refusing to get treatment is stupid,” Jaejoong told his mate as he telepathically alerted Dr. Cho to the injury.  
  
“I am perfectly fine. You know who isn’t fine? Changmin! Changmin isn’t fine. I have to find him before he dies, or before he becomes the mate of some sadistic warlord,” Yunho growled at Jaejoong as he paced the conference room, waiting for the others to arrive.  
  
Jaejoong just sat down in a chair, refusing to reply to Yunho. Did Yunho honestly think he didn’t know that? Jaejoong wondered. Jaejoong watched as the conference room filled with people…people that all knew the truth about him and Changmin. People, who thought he had betrayed Yunho and tricked him. Ryeowook had told them everything. Jaejoong did not feel angry at the doctor, though; he was too distracted by Yunho’s anger.  
  
Yong, who had followed them throughout the ship, sat down beside Kangin. “This ship is huge.”  
  
“And you have just seen a little bit of her, Kid. The Expectations is a grand lady of space,” Kangin told him.  
  
The conference room quickly filled, and Yunho continued to pace the room, not taking a seat. The minute Ryeowook entered the room, he was on Yunho quickly. “Let me look at that wound.”  
  
“Not now, Doctor,” Yunho commanded. “We need to get this briefing started.”  
  
Something about Yunho’s demeanor had Ryeowook sitting down fast by Jaejoong, who had his arms folded, glaring at anybody who dared to judge him.  
  
“We don’t have time for formalities, so here is the short of it. The Warlord ZhouMi laid a trap for me and Jaejoong. He had the assistance of a Joong named Hyun Joong who he was blackmailing. The Joong at the last minute talked ZhouMi into taking Changmin instead and leaving Jaejoong and me behind. I am sure you all know that Changmin is also Jaejoong’s son,” Yunho told them.  
  
Yunho continued. “Changmin is injured. When they were trying to control him…before they knew he was half Joong, they shot him. The wound is supposedly fatal to humans, but Hyun Joong and ZhouMi are hoping the injury…will wake up his dormant Joong half before it kills him.”  
  
Ryeowook turned to Jaejoong, who was sitting beside him and asked, “Is that possible?”  
  
“I honestly don’t know…the only Joong qualities that I have ever seen Changmin exhibit were his strong mental shields, his parent-child bond with Yunho…and a slight tendency for empathy and telepathy,” Jaejoong told them all.  
  
“Hyun Joong gave me a clue to where Changmin is,” Yunho told them.  
  
“What? When?” Kangin asked, shocked that Yunho had not said anything to him about it.  
  
“When he came to see us in the bunker, he let it slip. I was suspicious of his motives…during his talk with Jaejoong, he just seemed so regretful. Like he wanted to help, but couldn’t risk it. I tested him by purposely lying to him several times during our talk, and he never corrected-”  
  
“He might not have been able to read you completely. You have stronger shields than most humans to begin with, and since we bonded your abilities have only grown…I would not put any faith in him,” Jaejoong interrupted to say.  
  
Yunho stared at Jaejoong coldly. “Although my trust in others is severely diminished at the moment, I know he knew I was lying. When ZhouMi’s minion said they had to retrieve Changmin…he made a point of saying he had no desire to return there…twice in one week. He slipped up purposely. I know he did.”  
  
“We have to find out what ship he took to Trysor and retrieve its flight plan,” Junsu said, speaking up excitedly. “If we are able to find out where he has been in the last week, then we will know where they took Changmin and the others.”  
  
Yunho spared Junsu a smile. “Exactly.”  
  
“Hyun Joong could not have altered everybody’s memory on the planet. He is a Joong, but even we have our limits. Somebody had to have seen him,” Jaejoong added, doing his best to ignore Yunho’s hostility.  
  
“Kangin, do you mind providing a mind scan of your memory so we can get his picture out…he isn’t somebody that anybody is going to forget seeing on their own,” Yunho told Kangin.  
  
Kangin looked at Ryeowook, who was in charge of mind scanning, and said, “I am ready when you are, Doc.”  
  
Ryeowook got up from the table. “The faster, the better.”  
  
Yunho nodded his head in agreement as Kangin and Ryeowook left the room. “Jaejoong and I will have to go back to the planet with the picture…we can’t just take people’s words for the truth. We also need a record of every ship that visited Trysor in the last week.”  
  
“Already done,” Yoochun told him.  
  
Yunho was pleasantly surprised. “Good. Yoochun, you and I need to go over it together…and also, we need to question Yong.”  
  
“Question me?” Yong responded when every eye was suddenly on him.  
  
“Yes,” Yunho affirmed. “We need to know everything you know about ZhouMi. I want to know what planets are affiliated with him, and I want to know what merchants do business with him. I want to know everything you know.”  
  
“I am fine with that as long as you keep your promise,” Yong told the captain.  
  
“I will,” Yunho assured him. “It is on my huge list of things I have to do.”  
  
“Yunho, you don’t have to go back to the planet,” Jaejoong told his bondmate. “You can stay here and work.”  
  
Yunho stared suspiciously at Jaejoong. “What do you mean by that? Of course we have to go back to the planet.”  
  
“I do, but you don’t. I am pretty positive that our bond is strong enough to withstand me going back to the planet by myself,” Jaejoong admitted reluctantly.  
  
“What? I thought it meant instant death?”  
  
“At first it did. I wasn’t lying about that. You remember how sick you used to get when we were separated by mere feet. I told you the stronger the bond is, the more distance it will allow. I told you that beaming down to planets without me would be possible someday,” Jaejoong reminded him.  
  
Yunho furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “Our bond is strong enough now?”  
  
“It’s very…even if you are angry and treating me unfairly, it’s still strong,” Jaejoong retorted. “It’s only six months old, but I’m almost positive it should be strong enough.”  
  
“Almost positive?” Yunho questioned, ignoring Jaejoong’s dig at him.  
  
Jaejoong slumped back in his chair, annoyed. “Sometime within the next five years, if Changmin’s estimates are correct, I will give birth to your child. There hasn’t been a hybrid Joong in over a thousand years…if ever. I assume our bond is strong enough to withstand a low orbit separation.”  
  
Yunho studied Jaejoong. He was very angry with his bondmate, but he wasn’t willing to beam the other man down to the planet on assumption alone. “Lieutenant Lee, I want you to ready an away team. I want you to escort Jaejoong down to the planet…but I want you to take a shuttle. If he starts getting sick, I want him beamed back to the ship immediately.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Sungmin agreed immediately.  
  
Yunho turned to Junsu. “I want you flying that shuttle.”  
  
Junsu smiled, loving the trust the captain had in him. “Yes, Sir.”  
  
  
  
********************  
  
  
“I don’t have time for this,” Yunho told Ryeowook as he rested on an exam bed in Sickbay while the doctor ran a muscle rejuvenator over the wound to his left shoulder.  
  
“Well, you are going to have to take the time,” Dr. Cho told him unsympathetically. “We haven’t reached the ship yet, so there really isn’t anything you can do ‘til we intercept them.” Sungmin and Jaejoong had returned from the planet an hour ago, and they had been able to narrow it down to four ships that Hyun Joong could have taken to get to Trysor. Along with the information that Yoochun and Yunho had gotten out of Yong, the crew was beginning to feel like they were actually getting somewhere.  
  
Yunho gave the doctor a cross look, but allowed him to work on the shoulder.  
  
“Is there something you want to say to me, Captain?” Ryeowook asked as he continued to work. He was well aware of the fact that the captain was less than pleased with him.  
  
“You mean how my Chief Medical Officer has allowed me to be brainwashed, manipulated, and lied to…no, I have nothing to say to you,” Yunho told Ryeowook with a razor-sharp edge to his voice.  
  
Ryeowook gave Yunho a pained expression and explained, “You and I both know, if I had told you, he would not have allowed either one of us to remember anything. I tried repeatedly to get him to tell you, but he would just go on and on about the dangers of time.”  
  
“Did you try to tell anyone?”  
  
“I almost slipped up and told Kyuhyun once. Then there was another time I wanted to tell Changmin, but I stopped myself.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because I thought that someday my knowing the truth might benefit us all. Jaejoong felt that he could confide in me…and I think he needed to talk to someone.”  
  
Yunho looked up at the doctor and asked curiously. “What else do you know?”  
  
“I know the power of your bond scares him. When he almost shifted awhile back, he was almost scared witless. Everything was happening very fast with you two…I mean the Guardian explained why, but before that, he was really unnerved by it.”  
  
“Scared of what?”  
  
“I’m not sure; being a parent, or maybe he was afraid of the power of your bond.”  
  
“Is that all?” Yunho asked, suspecting the doctor was holding something back from him.  
  
Ryeowook sighed and gave Yunho a concerned look and said in an apprehensive voice, “The fact that he sent Changmin back in time…it has always bothered him. The time travel is what really scares him. It scared him even before he glimpsed Changmin’s dream and saw your future. I think Jaejoong feared that telling you the truth would be what led to that fate.”  
  
Yunho turned his head away from Ryeowook. He knew that Ryeowook and Jaejoong must have spoken recently…still confiding in each other. Yunho would not allow himself to think of the terrible future that Jaejoong had glimpsed. “Have you ever seen anything in Changmin…that would suggest he has Joong abilities?”  
  
Ryeowook put down the muscle rejuvenator, and closed his eyes. “No, but God, I wish I had. He always appeared perfectly human; just extremely intelligent and perceptive.”  
  
“I pray that the Joong ability to fool advanced technology…has always been in effect with Changmin.”  
  
“Me, too,” Ryeowook told the captain. “I hope that very much. I also pray we get them all back very soon.”  
  
Yunho sat up in bed, and suddenly felt sorry for Ryeowook, realizing how worried he must be for Kyuhyun. “I am sure Kyuhyun is fine.”  
  
“That’s kind of you to say, but we really don’t know,” Ryeowook told the captain. “I hope you are right, though. I really pray you are.”  
  
“He’ll be fine,” Yunho said, finding it nearly impossible to be angry at the doctor.  
  
“Are you done with your barbaric healing methods?” Jaejoong asked rudely as he walked into the exam room.  
  
Ryeowook gave Jaejoong a disapproving look as the other man approached the bed. “Barbaric? Really?”  
  
“Yes, barbaric,” Jaejoong confirmed.  
  
Ryeowook just shook his head at Jaejoong and told him, “Although nothing compares with your amazing healing abilities…it’s hardly barbaric. Don’t be crabby because he won’t let you heal him.”  
  
“I am not being-” Jaejoong started to say as he walked over to Yunho, who was giving him a disbelieving look. “Ok, I am totally being crabby.”  
  
“We don’t have time for you to be crabby or for your sulking…don’t look at me with those big, sad eyes and think I am going to take this necklace off, because I am not.” Yunho told Jaejoong, who was looking at him with such longing, Yunho had to fight the urge not to give in.  
  
Jaejoong reached for Yunho’s hand, and Yunho immediately pulled it away, avoiding Jaejoong’s touch. Jaejoong frowned at Yunho and asked, “What if I promise never to alter your memory again?”  
  
“Never?” Yunho asked, arching is eyebrows in a way so similar to Changmin, it caused Jaejoong’s heart to ache.  
  
Jaejoong looked at Yunho and clarified, “Well, not unless I thought…your life or health was dependent on it, or the life or health of any future children we might have.”  
  
Yunho gave Jaejoong a long suffering look. “I think you need to look up the definition of never.”  
  
“Well, I didn’t want to lie,” Jaejoong explained.  
  
Yunho jumped off the exam bed. “Well, that is an improvement.”  
  
“Yunho, how long do we have to keep having this fight? How many times do I have to apologize? I wasn’t doing it to purposely hurt you. I did it because I honestly thought I was protecting you both,” Jaejoong told Yunho again; trying his best to control his warring emotions. Part of Jaejoong wanted to bawl and the other part wanted to scream at Yunho.  
  
Yunho exhaled and conceded, “Jae, this fight has just barely begun…it has miles and miles to go before it is over. But we can’t focus on it. There are much more important things we need to focus on right now.”  
  
“So, you should forgive me, so we can let it go. You can take that wretched necklace off, and we can bask in the power of our bond. We can then focus on Changmin and the others.”  
  
“We can focus on the others without me taking this necklace off,” Yunho told him. “I will not forgive you so easily. I know why you did it…but that doesn’t mean I like it. It’s going to take time.”  
  
“Time?” Jaejoong whined. “Don’t you miss me…don’t you miss the feeling of the bond…don’t you just feel weaker without it. I just feel weak, and I look hideous. Don’t you feel awful inside?”  
  
“I don’t know…I’m too afraid right now to feel much of anything else,” Yunho admitted. “I don’t know if my knowing would have changed anything, but that’s where my mind automatically goes. What if I had known…would things be different now?”  
  
Jaejoong went to reach out for Yunho again and stopped himself, “What can I do…to help?”  
  
“Just time…just give me time.”  
  
Jaejoong frowned, wanting so much more, but then Yunho’s insignia beeped and Sungmin’s voice told them, “We have intercepted the merchant, Captain.”  
  
Yunho tapped his insignia and said, “We will be right there. If they try to flee, put a tractor beam on them.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Sungmin’s voice answered.  
  
Yunho headed out of sickbay with Jaejoong right beside him. “This is where I’m going be a total hypocrite. I want you to use every trick you have to get information out of them.”  
  
“I don’t mind you being a hypocrite. I have to point out that wearing that necklace isn’t helping us. Our ability to speak telepathically is rendered useless-”  
  
Yunho shook his head. “Right now I don’t trust you very much. If I think wearing the necklace becomes a hindrance, I will take it off…but right now I need it. I need to wear it. I need to know my mind is my own.”  
  
*******************  
  
The sound of Sulli screaming and pleading penetrated the last conscious parts of Changmin’s brain.  
  
“No, you can’t toss him in the river. You can’t!”  
  
“Miss Sulli, he’s already gone.”  
  
Changmin felt a warm hand against his forehead. “He’s still, warm Albert! He’s still warm.”  
  
“Miss Sulli, he’s barely breathing…his pulse is so weak. He’s fading away. He will be in a better place,” the groundskeeper told her.  
  
“No, I won’t let you toss him away when he is still alive.”  
  
“I don’t want to either, but the master has ordered it. He’s doesn’t want there to be any trace of this man on his land.”  
  
The warmth on Changmin’s forehead moved away and he felt his hand being picked up. “Can we just wait ‘til he’s dead?”  
  
“If the master comes back tonight, and he’s still here…you know we will all be beaten.”  
  
The grasp on his hand tightened. “Can’t we just take him to the river, but leave him on the bank ‘til we are sure he’s dead? You know the master won’t go out to the river.”  
  
“I suppose we could, but letting animals eat on him during the night isn’t any better than being tossed in the river.”  
  
“They would eat on him in the river, too.”  
  
“I suppose so, but what is the point. It isn’t worth upsetting the master.”  
  
“I want to bury him in a secret place….so I can visit his grave.”  
  
“Bury him? I can’t bury him; the master-”  
  
“Albert, I will do anything. You can have anything you want…if you bury him for me.”  
  
“Miss Sulli.”  
  
“Anything, Albert…you can have me. I know you want me. I know how you look at me.”  
  
“Miss Sulli….don’t talk crazy.”  
  
“You can’t help how you feel, but I can help you. The master will never know.”  
  
“He’d kill us both.”  
  
“No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t know. He gives me out to his business partners all the time.”  
  
“Miss Sulli,” the groundskeeper said in dismay.  
  
“Anything, Albert.”  
  
“I couldn’t,” Albert said, but Changmin could hear the change in his voice…the growing excitement. “All I would have to do is bury him?”  
  
“Yes, that’s all you would have to do.”  
  
“I am a bad person for even considering this, but I would still have to take him to the river-”  
  
“No, you can’t put him in the river!”  
  
“I would just put him on the river bank like you said…and then tomorrow morning after the master leaves for his meeting, I would bury him. Earl won’t be back ‘til tomorrow afternoon, so he wouldn’t notice.”  
  
Changmin felt Sulli’s hand slide down to his wrist feeling for a pulse. “Is he even still breathing? I can’t feel a pulse, but he still feels so warm.”  
  
“He’s just barely living now. Sometimes when somebody dies slow, the dying just lingers and lingers.”  
  
The hand moved away from his wrist and cupped his cheek. “I’m so sorry, so sorry…I’m sorry your life had to end here. I think it must be hard to linger.”  
  
“I think so too, better to die fast.”  
  
The hand left his cheek and he heard her move away. “I want to go with you to the river.”  
  
“Okay, but when we are done can we…” the groundskeeper’s voice trailed off.  
  
“We will come back to the barn, and you can have me then.”  
  
“It’s a deal, and I will bury him in the morning in a secret place that only we know about.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Fire a warning shot over their bow,” Yunho ordered. He was standing in the center of the bridge, and his eyes were locked on the ship directly in front of the Expectations. It was the third ship the Expectations had hunted down. The first two ships had not transported Hyun Joong, nor did they have any information on the missing crewmembers.  
  
“Sir, they are powering up their weapons,” Sungmin warned from the weapons console.  
  
Yunho shook his head at the idiotic actions of the smaller ship. “Let them, Lieutenant Lee.”  
  
“They are firing,” Sungmin alerted everybody. The weapons fire from the other ship bounced off the Expectation’s strong shielding, causing no damage.  
  
“Lieutenant Lee, take out their shields,” Captain Yunho ordered.  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Sungmin obeyed, and the phasers of the Expectations easily depleted the other ships shields.  
  
“Captain, they are now trying to hail us,” Ensign Eunhyuk notified the bridge crew.  
  
“About time they agreed to talk,” Junsu grumbled from his seat next to Eunhyuk. The Expectations had tried to hail the other ship multiple times before firing, and they had been ignored.  
  
“Well, let’s hear what they have to say,” Yunho said as he his eyes remained locked on the screen in front of him.  
  
The bridge’s front screen came to life, and a short, skinny man with long orange hair could be seen demanding, “What is the meaning behind this attack?”  
  
“Sir, if I was attacking you…you would be dead now. I simple wish to ask you some questions,” Yunho told the captain of the smaller ship.  
  
“And who the hell do you think you are?” the other captain demanded.  
  
“I am Captain Jung Yunho of the Starship Expectations. I’m sorry if I have inconvenienced you, but I need some information. I would be very grateful if you would help me.”  
  
“Well I don’t feel like helping you,” the other captain growled, full of arrogance.  
  
“No, I didn’t think you would,” Yunho told the other captain as he tapped his insignia. “Lieutenant Donghae, beam the other captain directly to the bridge.”  
  
Instantly the other captain was standing on the bridge in front of Yunho. The other captain’s arrogance immediately vanished as he tried to steady himself, having never encountered anything like the transporter beam before. “What kind of trickery is this?”  
  
Yunho stepped up to the other, much shorter captain and explained, “It is how we transport ourselves. I am going to be honest with you. I can smash you and your ship like a bug, but I won’t.”  
  
The other captain just stared up at Yunho, speechless.  
  
Yunho turned to look at Jaejoong, who had been sitting in his counselor’s chair, and the Joong immediately stood up and walked over to stand by Yunho. “This is Jaejoong. I do wish for your cooperation, but I don’t require it to get what I want.”  
  
“A Joong?” the other captain repeated, staring at Jaejoong in awe.  
  
“Yes, a Joong. Recently the Warlord ZhouMi kidnapped my…our son, and another member of my crew. I want them back,” Yunho explained.  
  
“Your son?” the other captain said surprised. “Nobody told me I was transporting a child.”  
  
“What did they tell you?” Yunho asked, not correcting the other captain.  
  
“That I was transporting grown men. I don’t transport children!”  
  
“They are on Belara!” Jaejoong whispered, trying to control his expression as information filled his head. “He transported them to Belara…he was told they were valuable slaves. He dropped them off with one of ZhouMi’s main supporters. I’ve met the bastard before - his name is Mr. Egglemen. He’s a disgusting, vile human being, who leeches off everyone he meets.”  
  
“Jaejoong, give the coordinates for that planet to Ensign Eunhyuk,” Yunho told his mate.  
  
“I think I’m getting them,” Eunhyuk said with a weird frown as he felt Jaejoong filling his head up with the coordinates telepathically.  
  
“Return this man back to his ship.” Yunho ordered. “Then maximum warp to Belara.”  
  
  
+++++++++++++  
  
  
Ryeowook walked into his office, looking for Heechul, but instead he found Jaejoong sitting in the dark on the floor, hugging his knees. “Jae, why are you sitting in the dark? What-”  
  
“I’m hiding,” Jaejoong explained, interrupting the doctor.  
  
“All the captain has to do is ask the computer where you are, and it will tell him,” Ryeowook pointed out as he went and stood in front of his friend.  
  
“He won’t ask it. He doesn’t care where I am, or how I am feeling.”  
  
“Computer, lights on,” Ryeowook ordered, and the lights immediately came on. “You know that isn’t true. He’s just upset right now.”  
  
Jaejoong looked up at Ryeowook with a tear-stained face. “He will never forgive me. Never.”  
  
“Jae, that isn’t true. He is just hurt…he feels like a fool.”  
  
Jaejoong shook his head frantically. “I never wanted him to feel that way…I just wanted to protect them. You tried to warn me, but I wouldn’t listen to you. I thought I could handle his anger, but I never dreamed he would wear one of those necklaces.”  
  
“You are just upset right now. You did what you thought was best, and I bet you would do it again.”  
  
“Of course, I am upset! Our bond is being blocked, and he hates me,” Jaejoong cried.  
  
“No, he doesn’t. He loves you. He’s just upset, and he’s allowed to be upset.”  
  
Jaejoong continued to shake his head. “I can’t stand it. I feel like I am dying on the inside.”  
  
“Pull yourself together!” Ryeowook said firmer now, trying to get the Joong to snap out of it. “We are going to arrive at Belara any minute now. We are going to go down there and get our people back. And then you can focus on fixing your relationship with Yunho,” Ryeowook explained to his friend who looked like he had aged ten years in the past couple of days.  
  
“I will never be able to fix it.”  
  
“Yes, you can,” Ryeowook said, trying to encourage the distraught man.  
  
“No, he’ll never forgive me,” a very troubled Jaejoong insisted.  
  
“You are just emotional right now. Once we get Changmin back, everything will be better.”  
  
“We won’t get Changmin back! We will never get Changmin back! Kyuhyun will be there, but Changmin won’t be!” Jaejoong cried as he reached up and pulled at his hair. “Changmin is lost forever!”  
  
“What? Why are you saying this?” Ryeowook asked as fear filled him, as he suddenly realized Jaejoong knew more than he was saying.  
  
“Kyuhyun will be returned to you. You two shall be reunited…he will love you as much today as he always has. When I first came aboard this ship…when you were assumed dead….his pain was overwhelming. I know you consider his sexual relationship with Sungmin as a huge betrayal, but you were always in his heart…filling it up. You were always the biggest, best part of him…even when he thought you were lost forever. But you weren’t lost forever…only Changmin is lost forever,” Jaejoong told Ryeowook as he tore handfuls of hair from his head and let it fall to the floor, and then reached up to tear out more.  
  
Ryeowook knelt down beside Jaejoong and gently pulled the other man’s hands away from his hair. “Changmin will be there with Kyuhyun and Shindong, too.”  
  
Jaejoong looked at Ryeowook and shook his head sadly. “No, they won’t be. Changmin was practically dead when he was loaded into that box.”  
  
“Then he…he discovered his Joong blood…the strong, powerful blood…the blood he inherited from you, and he survived against all odds. We have to believe that.”  
  
“He never found his Joong blood…if he had, the ship would have felt something. He wouldn’t have been able to control his new mental abilities…he never found any part of me,” Jaejoong tried to explain.  
  
Ryeowook refused to listen to him. “No, you don’t know that. Changmin might have found his own way to control his abilities…you don’t know that he couldn’t.”  
  
“I know,” Jaejoong assured him. “I know that ZhouMi’s people were going to pick up the one in blue, and the fat one.”  
  
“You got that from the mind of the other captain?” Ryeowook asked surprised. “You didn’t tell the captain.”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong whispered as he buried his head in his knees. “I can’t kill Yunho’s hope…I can’t…not yet. It’s all he has left.”  
  
Ryeowook frowned and reached out and tilted Jaejoong head up ‘til he was looking the other man in the eye. “When we get to the planet, he’s going to find out. You will have to tell him then.”  
  
“I am not going to planet…I won’t go there. I won’t be there when Yunho’s love for me is broken beyond repair,” Jaejoong cried and jerked away from Ryeowook. “I am not going to Belara.”  
  
“You have to-”  
  
Jaejoong shook his head frantically. “I won’t go. I refuse. I won’t be there when Yunho finds out. I won’t…I won’t see that look on his face. I won’t watch as his love for me completely dies.”  
  
“You two are bonded forever; his love for you can’t die,” Ryeowook reminded the broken man.  
  
Jaejoong let out a bitter laugh. “You don’t think so? His beloved Changmin will be dead…our son that I never even claimed…our son will be dead, and he will always blame me!”  
  
“You don’t know that!” Ryeowook said firmly.  
  
“If he isn’t dead…he’s a helpless mental mess, and at ZhouMi’s mercy. He will never be Yunho’s son again. Yunho will never forgive me! Yunho will never take that necklace off his neck! He will always blame me for losing Changmin! Always!” Jaejoong cried, trembling all over.  
  
Ryeowook reached over and pulled the Joong into a hug. “That isn’t true. Changmin isn’t even born yet. You haven’t even given him Changmin yet. I know you fear time, but I don’t believe anything in life is absolute. I believe we can make our own fate.”  
  
“I hope you are right…you don’t know how much I hope you are right,” Jaejoong told the doctor as he wept in his friend’s arms.  
  
  
*********************  
  
They materialized in front of a mansion that was four stories tall and spanned almost two hundred meters in width, during the early morning hours of that region of the planet.  
  
Yunho turned to look at his away team that consisted of Ryeowook, Junsu, Sungmin, and Kangin. “I guess we should knock,” Yunho said as he walked up the stairs to the mansion’s entrance.  
  
Kangin took in the ostentatious mansion and grotesque statues that covered the landscape, and told Junsu and Ryeowook, “I can already tell the person who lives here is a real asshole.”  
  
“I agree,” Ryeowook said as he and the rest of the team followed the captain up the porch stairs.  
  
Yunho inhaled a deep breath and knocked on a massive door that felt like it was made out of pure rock. Yunho frowned when his knocking barely made a noise, “Maybe instead of knocking, we should try kicking it in.”  
  
“Or we could just vaporize it,” Sungmin suggested pulling out his phaser.  
  
Yunho smiled at Sungmin. “Excellent idea-”  
  
Yunho was interrupted when the massive door opened and a small, petite man answered the door. “Good Morning, I am the butler for Mr. Egglemen. May I help you?”  
  
“Yes, I need to speak to Mr. Egglemen,” Yunho told the man.  
  
The butler smiled at Yunho and informed him, “I am sorry but the master is not taking visitors at this time.”  
  
“That’s too bad,” Yunho said, walking past the butler into the house. “Because I’m not taking no for an answer.”  
  
“Yunho never was a morning person. Yoochun and I used to play rock, paper, scissors to see who had the dubious task of waking him up at the academy,” Kangin said as he followed Yunho into the house.  
  
Sungmin followed Kangin in and added, “And that was before he commanded a Starship that could wipe out a whole planet on his orders.”  
  
Ryeowook smiled at the butler. “Yes, it’s probably best if you take us to your master.”  
  
“I can not possibly wake the master…I can’t! He would be very angry!” the butler shrieked as if the mere thought terrified him.  
  
Yunho frowned at the man’s reaction. “Blame it on me. I am going to see him one way or another, with or without your help. It would be far easier if you just pointed me in the right direction.”  
  
“I can’t possibly!” the butler shrieked as four armed guards appeared after hearing the man’s shrieking.  
  
The guards immediately fell to the ground as Sungmin and Kangin stunned them with their phasers, much to the butler’s shock. “Why…you shouldn’t do that,” the butler yelped.  
  
“This is ridiculous! I don’t have time for this. Jaejoong is simple going to have to get his ass down here. We don’t have time for this!” Yunho griped. The Joong had angered and scared Yunho when he had gone into hysterics, refusing to accompany them to the planet.  
  
“Captain,” Ryeowook said in a warning voice. “Until you take that necklace off, he isn’t going to be of any use to anyone.”  
  
“I am not taking the necklace off,” Yunho told Ryeowook, and then turned to Sungmin.  
“Sungmin, vaporize something.”  
  
“Anything?” Sungmin asked excitedly, looking around the bottom floor of the obscene mansion.  
  
“Preferably not living, but if the butler continues to refuse to take us to Mr. Egglemen, you can vaporize him next,” Yunho told the Security Chief in a deadpan voice.  
  
Sungmin smiled and aimed for a statue that stood in the entry way of a naked woman fondling a snake and vaporized it.  
  
The butler’s eyes widened in shock as the statue disappeared in front of his eyes. “If you follow me, I will take you directly to the master’s bedroom.”  
  
“It was a tacky statue,” Junsu couldn’t help but point out as they all followed the butler up a long and winding staircase.  
  
“That it was,” Kangin agreed as he followed behind the others with his phaser out and ready.  
  
“So tell me have you heard anything about your master holding people prisoner for the Warlord ZhouMi?” Yunho asked the butler as they stepped off the stairs and started walking down a long hallway.  
  
The butler shook his head. “I wouldn’t know anything about that.”  
  
“It’s a huge house to be so empty. Where is everybody?” Sungmin asked, his suspicions growing as they passed down the long hall, passing one empty room after another.  
  
“The servants stay out of sight till the Master leaves to attend to his work, and his guests were sent home last night. The Master was not in a mood for company last night,” the butler explained.  
  
Yunho shared a look with Sungmin and asked, “Does he not have family?”  
  
“All the master’s wives have suffered most unfortunate accidents over the years, the master’s parents live far away, the master is not close with any of his siblings, and the master has no children he’ll claim,” the butler explained as he came to a halt before they turned down another hallway. “There are two guards outside the master’s bedroom at all times.”  
  
Yunho nodded to Sungmin and the Security Chief went ahead of them, easily disposing of the two guards. The rest of them followed behind and stopped at the door where the two guards laid stunned on the floor.  
  
Kangin reached for the door to open it, but he found it locked. “Do we knock?” Kangin asked Yunho.  
  
“No,” Yunho ordered and Kangin immediately kicked the door open. The door swung open and the sight that they all took in stopped them in their tracks. All eyes were glued to the naked, beaten, young woman sitting on the floor at the end of the bed with her right hand shackled to the bed post above her.  
  
“Sulli,” Ryeowook whispered in shock as he recognized the bruised and battered girl he had last seen on the planet where their shuttle had been stranded.  
  
A fat man sat up in the huge bed and demanded, “What is the meaning of this?”  
  
Yunho looked up from the tortured girl to the man in the bed and frowned. “What the hell have you been doing to her?”  
  
The man started scooting his fat body toward the side of the bed, wrapping a sheet around his naked body. “She is my property. I can do with her as I please.”  
  
Kangin, who had not been able to take his eyes off the poor girl, pried his eyes away from her to look at the man and seethed, “Captain, permission to kill this son of a bitch.”  
  
“Not, yet,” Yunho said as he stared at the man who was now standing. The man was a good foot shorter than Yunho. He was middle aged, bald, and as round as he was tall.  
  
Ryeowook was now kneeling down in front of a very shocked Sulli, who just stared at him in disbelief. Junsu pulled a blanket free of the bed to cover her. Sungmin went to work ridding Sulli of the shackle that kept her chained to the bed.  
  
Yunho’s walked up to the man and slammed his fist into the man’s face, sending the fat man toppling over. “You have more of my crew, and if you value your life you will tell me where they are now.”  
  
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” the man denied as he looked up at Yunho from the floor as he held his now bloody face.  
  
Yunho reached down, grabbed the man under his arm, and yanked him back up into a standing position. “Do you think you can lie to me? Are you under some misconception that you are important? You are nothing. Nothing! I will destroy everything you own, and leave you in worse condition than that poor girl, who you’ve been abusing.”  
  
“I don’t know anything,” the man yelled at Yunho.  
  
Yunho pushed the man backwards till he collided with a large window in the room, causing the window to crack. “That’s extremely unfortunate for you.”  
  
Kangin was now beside the captain rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “Please let me loose on him.”  
  
“Not until Jaejoong gets down here and reads every one of his secrets,” Yunho said, reaching for his insignia.  
  
“Stop!” the man shouted. “Did you say Jaejoong? Please...not the Joong.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t even want to know how some disgusting, vile pig like you knows my Jaejoong.”  
  
“I merely knew him when he was with Lord ZhouMi,” the man explained quickly, sensing that Yunho was about to unleash on him.  
  
Yunho grabbed the man tightly around the neck. “You mean you knew him when he was being held against his will, tortured, and abused by that monster. I will happily let him do whatever he pleases with you.”  
  
“No, don’t! I will tell you everything,” Mr. Egglemen cried. “Your crew were here, but Lord ZhouMi’s men have already picked them up.”  
  
“If you are lying to me, I will know.”  
  
The man paled and added, “One of them died here. He was already injured when he got here….it wasn’t my fault!” The man’s words froze Yunho in place. The man explained further, “His wounds were fatal…there wasn’t anything we could do to help him.”  
  
Ryeowook, who had been tending to Sulli stood up, and asked in a horrified whisper, “Where is his body? I need to see his body.”  
  
“I…I…ha…had them toss it in the riv…river,” the man stuttered. The frozen, distant look on Yunho’s face scared him more than any of the earlier threats had. “I…I…diddn’t know any..anyone would come for him.”  
  
“You tossed Changmin in the river,” Yunho whispered in a soft voice filled with so much pain, that Junsu gasped in the background.  
  
“I had…my men to do it,” the man explained. “I didn’t know his name.”  
  
Yunho let go of the man and stepped up to the window searching for the river…the river that held his friend, brother, son. Kangin grabbed the man, and tossed him back down to the floor, fighting the urge to kick him to death.  
  
“Kangin, don’t,” Sungmin ordered sadly as Kangin lifted a leg to kick the man. “He still might have information about the others. We will have to bring him to Jaejoong.”  
  
Kangin roared, unable to resist kicking the man once, “The fucker let Changmin die, and then he had his body tossed in the river like garbage.”  
  
“I know…we can’t help Changmin now, but we can still save the others,” Sungmin pleaded slowly approaching Kangin, trying to control the other man’s rage.  
  
Ryeowook had made his way to Yunho. Yunho, who was just staring out the window, his eyes transfixed on a river that ran not far in the distance. Ryeowook pushed his grief away and laid a comforting hand on Yunho’s arm. “Yunho, I’m so sorry.”  
  
Yunho inhaled and exhaled and tried to find some control over his emotions which felt as if they were going to suffocate him at any moment. “I can’t leave Changmin in there…I can’t leave him in the river.”  
  
“I know,” Ryeowook barely managed to get out.  
  
Sulli, who had not spoken, climbed unsteadily to her feet. “I stopped them from throwing his body in the river.”  
  
All eyes turned to the girl, who was barely able to stand. Her face was badly beaten, but she managed to tell them, “The groundskeeper told me he would bury him for me today. I didn’t want him to be in the river. He was all I had left of Earth.”  
  
Junsu gently took Sulli’s arm, helping her maintain standing as the captain walked away from the window to face her. “Where is he now?”  
  
“He is lying near the river bank…by the stables. I couldn’t let them put him in the river…he was still warm,” Sulli explained. “I couldn’t feel a pulse, and I don’t think he was breathing…but he was still so warm.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes sparked alive, as hope suddenly filled him. Yunho was running from the room before the others knew what was happening.  
  
“Kangin, you stay here with her and this sorry piece of shit,” Sungmin ordered as the rest of them rushed after the captain.


	7. Chapter 7

He felt like he was drifting away in a sea of crystal blue waters.  
  
His heartbeat that he had thought stopped long ago, pounded in his head with an increasing rhythm, reminding him he was still alive, as it sped him along on his journey through the crystal, blue waters. His rational mind wondered why he would dream of water while he lay dying. Water was a symbol of life. Water was essential to all living things. What purpose did it serve in his death?  
  
The heartbeat continued to beat stronger, pumping a blood more powerful than any he had ever known before throughout his body. Mental guards that were placed long ago gave way to something strong and powerful…something he had lost long ago. Secrets to a world he had never been allowed to imagine being a part of were unlocked. A dream he never remembered, became a memory he would never forget. A familiar voice whispered the secret of his life.  
  
 _“Yes, everything of me that was in him…had to be…he must be free…”  
  
“If he stays here, he will just…die along with us.”  
  
“I have brought you my son.”  
  
“I love you so much…so much. You might not always believe me…and in your future, I might not even know how much, but I love you. I love you and your father more than anything.”_  
  
Changmin’s eyes opened to an existence more vibrant than any he had ever known. He laid there not moving, just looking up at the bright morning sky, as the memory played back in his mind, and the mystery of his life was slowly unraveled.  
  
His body that had been so weak earlier that even opening his eyes had been impossible, moved with complete ease. Changmin climbed gracefully to his feet and took in the world around him. A world bright with vivid colors; the grass and trees were greener than they had ever been before, the sunlight shone down on him with a warm yellow glow, and the birds flying in the distance were of exquisite colors.  
  
The sound of flowing water tore him away from the amazing wonders of the colorful world he had awakened to. The water beckoned to him. He walked till he was standing at the water’s edge. He knelt down beside the water and stared at his reflection.  
  
The Changmin he had been before was gone, and in his place was a beautiful person with white, silky hair that hung in long, loose, curls framing his face, a complexion creamy white and perfect, but the most startling change in his appearance was the eyes. They were crystal blue, the same color as the sea that he had been drifting away in, when his powerful blood awakened and called him back to life.  
  
The bright color of his uniform stirred a painful memory. “Red,” he said aloud as he pulled his shirt up to see a smooth abdomen without even a blemish. Gone was the horrible wound that had worried…Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun the name brought with it a soaring painful ache. Kyuhyun had sacrificed himself for Changmin….sacrificed himself so Changmin could have this day… this bright, wonderful day.  
  
“Changmin!”  
  
Changmin let his uniform fall back in place as he heard the familiar voice of his father calling for him.  
  
“Changmin!”  
  
Changmin stood and turned toward the voice as his father came into view. Changmin watched as his astonished father came to a dead stop as he took in the vision of his son.  
  
“Changmin,” Yunho repeated again, but this time in awe.  
  
Changmin thought his father handsome and strong, but something was not right. Yunho moved closer, and Changmin took a fearful step backwards. The warmth that always encompassed Yunho was gone, and in its place stood an empty shell of a man.  
  
“Changmin,” Yunho said softly and full of caution, as he watched his son step away from him like a skittish colt. “Changmin, it’s me, Yunho. Do you recognize me?”  
  
Changmin’s mind worked differently now, it didn’t latch on to logic; it latched on to other instincts…older, more primitive instincts. “No.”  
  
“Yes,” Yunho said as he carefully moved forward. “It’s me, Yunho.”  
  
Changmin shook his head suddenly, unreasonably angry. “No, you’re not!”  
  
Yunho stopped confused. “Yes, I am…you are going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay now.”  
  
“No, you’re not real!” Changmin screamed with certainty at what he thought was a false Yunho. This was not his Yunho. This person standing in front of him did not feel like Yunho…he felt like nothing.  
  
“Holy…Oh, my God…Thank God!” Ryeowook said, completely shocked as he, Junsu, and Sungmin approached. “There was a failsafe after all!”  
  
“Failsafe?” Changmin asked, sparing Ryeowook with a quick glance, before returning his heated glare to the man claiming to be his father.  
  
“Jae had hoped he had placed a failsafe…so if your life was ever in danger…” Ryeowook began to explain, but trailed off when his head erupted in pain.  
  
Sungmin and Junsu both dropped to the ground beside him, holding their heads in agonizing pain. Ryeowook realized what was going on and tapped his insignia hailing the ship, “Get Jaejoong down here now and bea-” Ryeowook collapsed, unconscious, unable to finish.  
  
Yunho watched as his crew members fell to the ground in horrible pain. Yunho turned back to Changmin, “Changmin, are you doing that? What did you do to them?”  
  
“Who are you?” Changmin demanded, clenching his fists. “Where is Yunho?”  
  
“I’m Yunho.”  
  
“Liar! You are not!”  
  
“I’m not lying to you. You just need to calm down,” Yunho tried to reason with his son calmly as he turned back to his crew. “You are hurting them…calm down.”  
  
“You are not my father!”  
  
Yunho turned back to his angry son. “Why do you keep saying that?”  
  
“Because you have the necklace on, and he senses nothing from you. It doesn’t just block me…it blocks all Joongs,” Jaejoong, who had just materialized on the planet, explained with widened eyes as he took in the newly transformed Changmin. “You have always had a parent-child bond with Changmin. When he could sense nothing else…he sensed it.”  
  
Yunho, realizing his mistake immediately, flung the necklace off. “I am sorry, Changmin…I wasn’t thinking.”  
  
The anger in Changmin’s eyes vanished, replaced by relief and love. Changmin rushed toward Yunho, grabbing a hold of the other man and pulling him into a tight hug. “Yunho!”  
  
“Yes,” Yunho said soothing his son, who had almost knocked him over with the power of his embrace.  
  
A very shaky Jaejoong turned away from his lover and his son to look at the other three men collapsed on the ground. “Yunho, they have to get back to the ship now.”  
  
Yunho pulled away from Changmin, and hit his insignia. “Yoochun, beam Junsu, Sungmin, and Ryeowook back to the ship now.”  
  
“Captain, is everything okay?”  
  
“No, yes… I don’t know. Changmin is alive…but different-”  
  
“Dangerous,” Jaejoong said, interrupting as he watched the men on the ground being transported away.  
  
Yunho looked at Jaejoong fearfully after hearing his description of their son. “The house up there,” Yunho pointed to the house in the distance. “Will they be safe up there?”  
  
“That should be far enough away.” Jaejoong answered, studying Changmin closely. “As long a he is down here, and away from them.”  
  
“Yoochun,” Yunho, who had not ended his connection with the commander, continued, “Kangin is up at the mansion…and the ambassador’s daughter is with him…we found her. She’s not…she very fragile. Send an away team to the house. I want them to collect as much information as they can on ZhouMi, and get that girl out of there. It appears that ZhouMi has Kyuhyun and Shindong. We have to find the warlord. Changmin…Changmin is a Joong now and he…I think he hurt Ryeowook, Junsu, and Sungmin with the power of his mind.”  
  
Changmin dropped to his knees, pulling Yunho down with him. “I didn’t mean to hurt them,” Changmin said in a child-like voice. “I didn’t mean to.”  
  
Yunho closed his connection to the ship and hugged Changmin tightly. “I know you didn’t.”  
  
“Sulli…Sulli…tried to help me. She needs to go home…she needs to go home,” Changmin cried, still clinging to his father as emotions he was unaccustomed to flooded him.  
  
“We all need to go home,” Yunho said, rubbing his son’s back, and trying to calm him. He had never seen Changmin behave in this way…not even in a remotely similar way, not even as a child. “Jaejoong, I would appreciate some input from you.”  
  
At Yunho’s words Jaejoong moved closer to them. “He needs to put the necklace on.”  
  
 _“Why,” Yunho asked telepathically.  
  
“Because my control is going to slip, and you are going to end up with a brain damage if he doesn’t.”  
  
“Good reason.”_  
  
“Changmin, I need you to wear something for me,” Yunho told his son.  
  
“I am wearing red…red. Yunho, I am wearing red. I am wearing Kyuhyun’s red. Kyuhyun took my place. They just wanted the fat one and the one in blue….Kyuhyun took my place. Why would he? He took my place,” Changmin sobbed, shaking all over. “What if he dies?”  
  
Jaejoong grabbed the necklace from the ground, and handed it to Yunho, trying to not to stare at Changmin, who was crying so openly. Jaejoong thought the man Changmin had been before would be completely mortified at his behavior now.  
  
“He wanted us to save you,” Yunho told Changmin, holding up the necklace. “I have to put this on you.”  
  
Changmin, who was easily distracted in his current mental state, stopped crying to look at the necklace. “I didn’t like jewelry before, and I didn’t favor the color pink, but it’s very pretty now. I think I like pink now. Can I hold it?”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong said, kneeling down beside Yunho unsteadily. “Changmin, your mind is very dangerous right now…Yunho has to put the necklace on you…so you can’t get confused and take it off.”  
  
Changmin focused on Jaejoong for the first time. “You lied to us.”  
  
“I did,” Jaejoong agreed, reaching out one shaky arm to grasp Yunho’s shoulder to steady himself as knelt down beside them. “But I’m not lying now. You are going to hurt more people if you don’t put that necklace on. You have great mental powers now, but you don’t know how to control them. You hurt the others, and you weren’t even trying.”  
  
“I didn’t mean to.”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head as he fought to keep Changmin’s unleashed power under control. “If you don’t put the necklace on…you…you might hurt Yunho.”  
  
“I don’t want to hurt Yunho!” Changmin exclaimed, his eyes filling with tears again.  
  
Yunho slipped the necklace on Changmin, and Jaejoong immediately fell into his bondmate, exhausted after the battle to keep Changmin’s mind under his control, and Yunho’s mind safe ended.  
  
 _“Are you okay?”_  Yunho asked Jaejoong telepathically, not pulling away from his mate, who was leaning on him.  
  
 _“I will be,”_ Jaejoong told him as he wrapped an arm around Yunho, reveling in the feel of Yunho. How long had it been since he had felt Yunho without the necklace’s interference?  
  
“I didn’t mean to hurt them,” Changmin cried, wiping his face. “I don’t feel like me. The world is different now.”  
  
“No, you are different…what you feel now is different. Everything is more enticing now…beautiful,” Jaejoong told him. “The necklace will help you…you won’t be flooded by the feelings of others.”  
  
Changmin nodded his head then looked down at the necklace around his neck. “Is this why I couldn’t feel Yunho? Why I can’t feel him now? What is this? How does it work?”  
  
Yunho smiled and patted Changmin’s arm. “Now there is that familiar curiosity I love.”  
  
Changmin smiled back at him so openly, and so unlike his old self, that Yunho had to fight the urge to look away from the brightness of that smile.  
  
“This necklace was made by the Joong race a long time ago. It’s creates a barrier, telepathic powers can not cross it. If I had it on, I couldn’t read anybody’s mind. I couldn’t even read Yunho’s mind,” Jaejoong explained.  
  
Changmin looked suspiciously at Jaejoong, who was sitting with them, leaning against Yunho with his arm wrapped tightly around him, “Why did Yunho have it on?”  
  
“Because he is very angry with me, and he wanted to punish me. He knows the best way to punish me is to keep us apart,” Jaejoong explained, causing Yunho’s mouth to drop open.  
  
 _“Jaejoong!”  
  
“It’s the truth.”_  
  
“Was it because you lied about me?” Changmin asked.  
  
“Yes, it was. He was very angry to find out that you were my son.”  
  
Changmin shook his head, knowing better. “No, he wouldn’t be angry because I’m your son; it was because you didn’t tell us.”  
  
“I couldn’t tell you,” Jaejoong told him.  
  
Changmin, who was still looking at the necklace that was around his neck, informed them, “I remember the dream…the memory.” Changmin then looked up at Jaejoong, “You sent me back in time to save my life.”  
  
“Yes, I did,” Jaejoong replied, squeezing Yunho tighter as the memory of their doomed future resurfaced in his mind.  
  
Changmin looked at Jaejoong curiously. “Why did you send me back to him, and not back to you?”  
  
“I don’t know why…none of that has happened yet. I can only assume it was because he needed you so very much. You are so important to him…he loves you so much. I could never take you from him. Plus, you are vital to your whole ship…they all need you so badly. They would be lost without you,” Jaejoong answered. “My life before your father saved me…I would not have wanted that life for you.”  
  
“What about your home planet?” Changmin asked, full of curiosity now.  
  
Jaejoong smiled uneasily. “I left there a long time ago.”  
  
“Can you go back?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Through a Guardian of Time?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Will you take me?”  
  
“Someday.”  
  
Changmin’s eyes lit up with excitement. “The Guardian’s will listen to me now. I can travel-”  
  
“No!” Yunho and Jaejoong both yelled at the same time.  
  
“Why not?” Changmin said pouting, so openly that Yunho just stared at him at a loss. Changmin had never acted like this.  
  
 _“This isn’t normal,”_  Yunho told Jaejoong telepathically.  
  
 _“Everything has changed now; he might never be the same…but it is still him.”  
  
“I know, but…”  
  
“The shock of almost dying and of changing into the Joong form…it must have been so hard. It may get better…I just don’t know.” _Jaejoong told Yunho. Then he calmly answered Changmin, “There are many things you have to learn before you can travel through a Guardian of Time.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because there would be huge ramifications throughout time if somebody changed the timeline accidently,” Jaejoong answered. “That’s why the Guardian of Time has to be so selective about who it lets journey through it.”  
  
“It will like me. It gave you two a tour throughout your past lives, because you have a timeless love…which I thought was extremely illogical at the time, but now I’m glad. I am the product of timeless love, so I should be able to go anywhere I want.”  
  
Yunho stood up, suddenly very wary of his son. “The only place we are going right now is back to the ship.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because we have to go save Kyuhyun and Shindong,” Yunho explained as he pulled Jaejoong up to stand beside him.  
  
“How are you going to save them?” Changmin asked, standing up with ease.  
  
“I will do whatever I have to do,” Yunho told Changmin as he hit is insignia. “Commander, beam us up.”  
  
****************  
  
Lieutenant Donghae had seen a lot of strange things during his service in Star Fleet, but nothing compared to the change in Changmin. Donghae watched as the once coolly, efficient Lieutenant Jung materialized in his new exquisitely beautiful body. The creamy pale skin, stunning blue eyes, and soft blonde hair took even Donghae’s breath away.  
  
Yunho took Changmin by the hand and stepped off the transporter platform with him. “Changmin, you need to go to sickbay with Jaejoong.”  
  
 _“Why do I have to take him to sickbay?”_  Jaejoong exclaimed so loud mentally that Yunho’s head rung.  
  
 _“Because I have to go to the bridge and find out what is going on.”_  
  
 _“I can go to bridge for you, and you can take Changmin to sickbay. He would be more comfortable with you.”  
  
“You can take him to sickbay…he has a lot of questions and I can’t answer them.”  
  
“Yunho, I’d rather you take him.”_  
  
 _“Jaejoong, I have been taking care of him since I was four years old, it’s about time you did something for him.”  
  
“Yunho…he needs you! I am not trying to avoid him. I am simply thinking of his preference!”  
  
“Well maybe it is time he learns to need you, too!”_  
  
Changmin watched as his parents stared at each other as they telepathically battled it out. “Why don’t you fight verbally? So we all can hear you?” he asked as he grabbed the necklace and started to lift it. “If I take this necklace off, can I hear you fighting?”  
  
“No, don’t! That will hurt,” Jaejoong warned quickly as he reached up and pulled Changmin’s hand away from the necklace.  
  
“We are not fighting…we are just communicating,” Yunho said, letting go of Changmin’s other arm.  
  
Jaejoong sighed, displeased, and grabbed Changmin’s hand. “Yunho is bossing me around…thinking the worse of me. While he completely ignores how awful he has been treating me, and the affect it is having on me.”  
  
 _“Not now!”  
  
“Have you even looked at me? That damn necklace may be off, but you are still keeping your distance from me. I look like hell.”  
  
“Jaejoong, I can’t just forgive instantly…I just can’t. No matter how much you want me to. I said give me time…just give me time. Now, please, get him to sickbay. I have a ship to run, and people to rescue.”_  
  
Jaejoong looked away from Yunho, and pulled Changmin toward the exit. “Let’s go to sickbay, Changmin. Maybe if we are lucky, they will sedate you.”  
  
“Jaejoong!” Yunho said completely outraged by what Jaejoong said. “Sedate him?”  
  
 _“What? He needs to sleep. You always think the worst of me now, and you are starting to piss me off,”_  Jaejoong replied defensively to Yunho privately. He then turned to Changmin and explained aloud to him as they exited the room. “You’ve had a very rough day; you need to rest.”  
  
“I got shot,” Changmin told Jaejoong as he allowed himself to be led down the corridor by the other man.  
  
“I know.”  
  
**************  
  
“So, we have no idea where Kyuhyun and Shindong are,” Yunho asked the men around him at the conference table. Yunho felt mentally exhausted, as the adrenaline he had been running off of for days left him.  
  
Yoochun shook his head. “No, from what we were able to gather from ZhouMi’s correspondences with Egglemen. He realized you and Jaejoong had escaped, and he went into hiding immediately after picking up Kyuhyun and Shindong from Belara.”  
  
“There are dozens of planets he could be hiding on,” Donghae pointed out sadly.  
  
Yunho knelt forward resting his elbows against the table and covered his face with his hands. “Not to mention a whole galaxy to hide in…he knows this galaxy much better than we do.”  
  
“He’s a like a rat,” Yong, who had been very helpful providing whatever information he could, pointed out.  
  
“We would have to get tossed into a galaxy ran by warlords,” Yesung grumbled from his seat beside Yunho. “There is no organization at all…no governing body.”  
  
Yunho pulled his hands away from his face and looked at Yong. “Yong, you said that not everybody who works for ZhouMi does so willing.”  
  
“Hell no, they don’t,” Yong quickly answered.  
  
Yunho sat up straighter in his chair. “So I assume some of these worlds he rules…he rules by force or fear.”  
  
“Most of them,” Yong answered.  
  
“Isn’t there a rebellion? Isn’t there anybody in this galaxy that attempts to fight these warlords?” Yunho asked.  
  
“Rebellions never last long. The three warlords always team up to smash any rebels.” Yong told him.  
  
Yunho eyed Yong suspiciously. “Do you know any current rebels?”  
  
“I might have heard of some, but I never joined them. I value breath-”  
  
“Yes, I know you value breathing too much,” Yunho finished for him. “But if I needed to talk to some rebels, could you make it happen?”  
  
Yong grinned at Yunho. “I could.”  
  
“Good,” Yunho said grinning back at him.  
  
“We are going to join the rebellion?” Yesung asked, confused.  
  
Yoochun smiled, sensing Yunho’s plan. “No, we are going to smoke out a rat.”  
  
  
**************************  
  
  
Yunho left the briefing and immediately headed for sickbay. He had telepathically communicated with Jaejoong during the meeting, and Jaejoong had vaguely told him everything was under control. Jaejoong had refused to go into details, still sulking because Yunho had dared to be upset with him for longer than five minutes.  
  
Yunho would have loved to know how he was not supposed to be upset with his mate. They shared a child, and the Joong had never seen fit to tell him. Yunho’s mind might be able to understand Jaejoong’s reasoning for not telling him, but his heart didn’t care. His heart hurt.  
  
He loved Jaejoong, deeply and absolutely, and he had been led to believe that he would someday betray that love and have a son with another. Jaejoong had always assured him there were many ways to conceive a child, and Yunho would not be betraying him…but still Yunho had felt it was wrong. How comforting it would have been to know that Changmin was a product of their love.  
  
And then there was Changmin, and the change in him was mindboggling to say the least. In the place of his strictly logical son was this beautiful, childlike person. Yunho was grateful that Changmin appeared perfectly healthy, but Yunho was extremely worried about his mentality. Even as a young child Changmin had never been so…open.  
  
And then there was Kyuhyun…Kyuhyun, who had sacrificed himself for Changmin. That his first officer was in the hands of that demented warlord made Yunho physically ill. He was also worried for Shindong, who had proven to be quite an asset to the ship. Also how were Junsu, Ryeowook, and Sungmin really doing? They had been unconscious when Yoochun beamed them back to the ship.  
  
And then there was the ambassadors’ poor daughter; he could not even begin to imagine the horrors that poor young girl had endured. Then he thought of Lieutenant Choi still out there at the mercy of somebody, and it made his blood boil. Was she really with Hangeng? Had Hyun Joong actually had Kyuhyun tell him the truth in that message? Why had Hyun Joong provided them with so much correct information?  
  
These thoughts and a hundred others concerning his ship filled Yunho’s mind, exhausting him. Yunho fought against the desire to grab Jaejoong and just fall asleep in his lover’s arms. The desire to do so was overwhelming, but he could not allow himself to do such a thing. He could not give in so easily. He had been lied to…repeatedly, and his mind had been tampered with repeatedly. He could not forget that, no matter how much he loved and needed Jaejoong.  
  
“What happened to him?” Yunho heard Eunhyuk ask in a voice filled with wonderment, when he walked into the sickbay waiting room.  
  
Siwon, who was standing beside Eunhyuk, explained to the other man, “It was like something just clicked inside of him. One minute he was acting like he always did, and then he saw her, and everything changed.”  
  
Before Yunho could ask what was going on, Heechul stepped into the room, and told the two men, “You can see them now. They are sleeping, and I want them to stay that way. I expect them to make a full recovery, but with serious brain injuries, I always prefer to closely monitor my patients overnight.”  
  
Yunho stood very still…did he dare to hope? He watched as Eunhyuk and Siwon hurried away, and Heechul turned to look at him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  
  
Yunho gasped. “I think I have.”  
  
“No, you haven’t,” Heechul told him with a grin. “I, on the other hand, return to awareness to find this ship in utter madness. Three massive intracranial bleeds…three? And one of them was your acting Chief Medical Officer? There is absolutely no medical staff at my disposal, and I remind you….there were three massive intracranial bleeds. My brilliance was never exaggerated, but even I admit to being challenged by the circumstances. Oh, and let’s not forget the poor child. Her body scan reads like a roadmap of absolute torture. I shall fix her body perfectly, but that poor wounded psyche may never heal completely.”  
  
Yunho couldn’t stand it anymore, so he grabbed the other man and hugged him as tightly as he could. “Thank you, God.”  
  
“No, not God…just Dr. Kim Heechul,” Heechul told Yunho as he allowed himself to be embraced by the emotional captain. “Oh, and I see the life long question of where did Changmin come from is finally answered. Joong physiology fascinates me. It is inconceivable that Changmin was able to appear completely human for so long, and yet his Joong half was laying dormant ‘til his near death experience spurred it into action. Incredible.”  
  
Yunho hugged him tighter; suddenly feeling like everything was going to be alright. It had been months…half a year since he had last seen a glimpse of the brilliant man that had been Kim Heechul. “I might never let you go.”  
  
Heechul pulled away from Yunho. “As flattered as I am, I have patients, and you are already taken. I would prefer if you kept it purely professional between us, since your current mate is quite formidable.”  
  
Yunho laughed. “I will try my best.”  
  
“That’s all anyone can ask,” Heechul said as he scrutinized Yunho. “I might not be here very long, so there are some things I need to quickly tell you.”  
  
Yunho frowned at the thought of losing Heechul again. “Maybe you-”  
  
“That I will remain in this lucid state is highly unlikely. My brain is far too damaged,” Heechul said, interrupting the captain. “So, here is what I have to say to you. It’s not fair that at your age you have been forced to assume the responsibility of a starship, but we both know life is rarely fair.”  
  
“You are fully capable of handing it…perhaps you were even born to handle it, but don’t get in your own way. Be wary of your pride and your stubbornness. You must also be careful with those you love. You let Yoochun get away with too much, and we both know how important your reign on him is. You have never demanded enough of Kangin. You are too dependent on Changmin’s intelligence. Your mate has amazing telepathic gifts. Do not shun those gifts…they might just save us all.”  
  
“Also, sickbay can not be run by one doctor and a lunatic,” Heechul continued. “You need to get Dr. Cho some dependable help. And most importantly, shore leave was invented for a reason. Get these boys off this ship, or open the holodecks. Let them feel the ground under their feet and sunlight on their faces.”  
  
Yunho nodded his head, wishing that Heechul could stay like this forever. Heechul was his friend, but he never let friendship get in the way of the truth. Yunho needed him…needed his wisdom. “Anything else?”  
  
“More than I have time to say; I have to go check on my patients,” Heechul told him as he turned to leave the room.  
  
Yunho followed Heechul from the room and into the main medical section of sickbay. On three beds he saw Ryeowook, Sungmin, and Junsu sleeping. Eunhyuk stood between Sungmin and Junsu’s bed looking terribly relived as he watched his two resting friends. Siwon stood between Ryeowook and Sungmin’s bed, his focus divided between the two of them.  
  
Heechul headed for the private room where Sulli was placed, and Yunho walked up to a sleeping Ryeowook’s bedside. Yunho stared down guiltily at Ryeowook. He had never expected to not find Kyuhyun on the planet. Yunho knew that Ryeowook would be relieved for Changmin, but heartbroken that Kyuhyun was lost to him once again.  
  
“He will be very worried for the commander when he awakens,” Siwon said to the captain.  
  
Yunho nodded his head. “Yes, we all are worried…but of course he will feel it the most.”  
  
“No doubt he will also feel proud of the sacrifice the commander made.”  
  
Yunho smiled weakly. “It will be of small consequence ‘til Kyuhyun is returned to him. Those two…nothing can ever come easily for them.”  
  
“Their love comes easy,” Siwon couldn’t help but saying. For a year he had watched Ryeowook pine for Kyuhyun. He had known the doctor’s love for the commander was immense, but not ‘til he had met the commander did he see that it was fully returned. The commander may have done things to anger the doctor, but the love between them was easily felt by all.  
  
Yunho looked up at Siwon with determined eyes. “You are correct, of course…it bends, but it never breaks. I will find Kyuhyun for him…for all of us,” Yunho vowed, with absolute conviction.  
  
Siwon smiled at Yunho…seeing the man…the man that was born to lead who Sungmin had spoken of. “I have no doubt you will.”  
  
Yunho glanced back down at Ryeowook before heading to the private room that held Changmin.  
  
He walked into the room to find Changmin sleeping, and Jaejoong sitting in the chair at their son’s bedside, looking exhausted. Yunho was not oblivious to the affect his anger and distance was having on Jaejoong. The bond was rewarding, but it was also demanding, and if he allowed it…it would have had the same affect on him, but as the captain, he had to fight against it. He had a ship to run, and people to rescue.  
  
 _“Did they really have him sedated?”_  Yunho asked Jaejoong when the other man looked up at him from the chair.  
  
 _“No, Heechul threatened to when Changmin refused to get on the bed to be scanned, but in the end, Heechul easily handled him.”_  
  
Yunho snorted softly.  _“Heechul easily handles everybody.”_  
  
 _“Once Changmin was on the bed, it wasn’t long before he was sound asleep.”_  
  
Yunho looked down at the sleeping Changmin as he telepathically communicated with Jaejoong to keep from waking his son.  _“What is this child-parent bond you spoke of earlier?”_  
  
Jaejoong, whose eyes were glued to Yunho, answered,  _“A baby Joong bonds with its parents…it starts bonding with its birth parent while still in the womb. The birth parent becomes so consumed…overwhelmed by the bond it shares with its child that they eventually become telepathically blind to almost everybody else.”_  
  
 _“Forever?”  
  
“No, not forever.”  
  
“But you said I was bonded with Changmin…I’m not the birth parent.”_  
  
Jaejoong smiled at Yunho, who had looked away from Changmin to eye his mate. _“Oh, I am perfectly aware of that. Your bond with Changmin will also start to form while he is still in the womb, because he will be aware of our bond. The nonbirth-parent’s bond is never as strong as the birth-parent’s bond at first, but it grows stronger as the child grows older.”_  
  
Yunho looked back down at Changmin as things became clear to him.  _“Changmin has always needed me…it’s like I anchored him. He’s always been so awkward with others, especially when he was a child, but never with me. He doesn’t like to be touched, but yet my touch has always had a calming affect on him.”_  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head in agreement.  _“You are right…that is the bond working. I am afraid whatever awkwardness that Changmin has…it was due to me breaking the child/birth-parent bond with him when I sent him back in time.”_  
  
 _“You broke it?”  
  
“Yes, at first I thought I had only suppressed it, but it appears broken. I must have had to break it in order to submerge all his Joong abilities. If I hadn’t…when he retained his Joong abilities…he would have loved me. The bond we had…it was destroyed.”  
  
“So I was right…you don’t feel anything for him.”_  
  
 _“I have no Joong bond with him, but to say I feel nothing is wrong. I might not feel anything as intensively as I would have if the bond was intact, but like I said before…just knowing he is ours…means something to me. I feel something for him, something deep down that can’t be ignored.”_  
  
Yunho let his eyes drift to Jaejoong all curled up in the chair, looking strangely human and delicate. He would never have described his mate as delicate normally…he was beautiful, but he was strong. The dark circles under his eyes, and the shallowness of his cheeks made him appear totally breakable…as if he was breaking even now.  
  
“Pity?” Jaejoong asked sharply as he sensed Yunho’s feelings.  
  
Changmin stirred in bed, but he his eyes did not open, and Yunho stepped around the bed toward Jaejoong shaking his head, “No, just worry,” Yunho answered softly, moving closer to his lover.  
  
“Worry for me? I’m touched,” Jaejoong replied, unable to hide his bitterness, as he looked up at the man who stood directly in front of him in the chair now.  
  
Yunho frowned and reached down and took Jaejoong’s arm, pulling him up from the chair. Jaejoong stared at his lover, confused, not daring to read the other man’s mind, when Yunho took his place in the chair. “Am I being dismissed? Are you going to stay with him…do you want me to leave?” Jaejoong asked at a lost.  
  
 _“No,”_  Yunho said mentally as he pulled Jaejoong down to his lap. _“Let’s just rest for a little while. It will be another couple of hours before we reach the rebels’ installation. There isn’t anything we can do for Kyuhyun ‘til then.”_  
  
 _“You did feel pity, but at this point I don’t even care.”_ Jaejoong wrapped his arms around Yunho’s neck and rested his head against Yunho’s shoulder.  _“I don’t even care.”_  
  
Yunho closed his eyes and wrapped an arm around Jaejoong’s waist.  _“Not pity…just worry. I know how you feel…I feel it too, but I can’t let myself be controlled by the bond; too many people rely on me.”_  
  
 _“You don’t feel what I feel…you didn’t feel what I felt. The necklace didn’t affect you like it did me. It was made to protect people like you, and punish people like me,”_  Jaejoong explained, closing his own tired eyes.  
  
 _“Just sleep.”_  
  
 _“You are still so angry with me…I can feel it,”_  Jaejoong told him mentally, fighting the urge to just cry. He hated how weak he felt. The bond was back, and he was in Yunho’s arms…but still he felt so weak. Where had all his strength gone? Yunho’s anger drowned out any good he should have been feeling.  
  
“I am a lot of things right now,” Yunho whispered to him as he rested his head against Jaejoong’s.  _“You can’t only focus on the anger…it’s not the strongest, nor the most important. I am angry with you, but I am also so relieved.”  
  
“Relieved?”  
  
“Yes, relieved…relieved that he is alright and that he is ours. Changmin was right; I am angry at you for not telling me, not because you are his parent, too. I wouldn’t want him to be anybody else’s…I would never want to share him with anybody else.”_  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes opened, and they fell on the younger man resting in the bed. He now gave in to the urge to cry, and he let the tears fall from his eyes freely. His reached out and squeezed Yunho’s arm that was wrapped around him, and he did feel Yunho’s relief. Why he had only felt the anger before, he did not know. He closed his eyes and followed Yunho off to sleep, rejoicing in the relief the other man felt at knowing his beloved child was the product of their love.


End file.
